PUTIN DISMISSES ALLY IN KREMLIN RESHUFFLE

• President Vladimir Putin on Friday abruptly replaced his longtime chief of staff with a low-profile younger aide, the latest in a series of moves by the Russian leader to rid himself of members of his old guard.

Analysts see the dismissal of Sergei Ivanov, 63, as a reflection of Putin’s increasing weariness with his close lieutenants who had known him even before his ascent to the presidency. The Russian leader now seems inclined to promote new, younger members of the Kremlin administration who fully owe their careers to him.

The elevation of 44-yearold Anton Vayno, one of Ivanov’s former deputies, doesn’t necessarily portend any shift of Kremlin policy, which has invariably been shaped by Putin himself throughout his 16-year rule.

Ivanov met Putin in the 1970s, when they were both young KGB officers. Unlike Putin, whose KGB career reached its peak with a stint in East Germany in the late 1980s, Ivanov served several stints in Western countries — coveted postings that were considered much more prestigious.

After Putin won his first presidential term in 2000, Ivanov became his defence minister. When Putin had to move into the prime minister’s seat in 2008 due to term limits, Ivanov had been considered his likely successor, but Putin chose Dmitry Medvedev as his placeholder for the following four years.

Some Kremlin insiders believed that Ivanov then ruined his presidential chances with a premature celebration of what he apparently had seen as the already secured nomination, something that had put Putin on his guard.

Putin kept Ivanov’s seat on the presidential Security Council, a small consolation prize for his sharp downgrade. Ivanov then praised Vayno as fully fit to replace him. Vayno, a grandson of Estonia’s communist leader during Soviet times, served as a diplomat before becoming a Kremlin aide.