Dmitri N. Kozak, a long-serving aide to President Vladimir V. Putin who told confidants that he believed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a mistake, has resigned his post, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
Mr. Kozak, 66, stepped down “voluntarily” as a deputy chief of staff to Mr. Putin, Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told reporters. Russian news outlets had earlier reported Mr. Kozak’s departure.
Resignations of high-ranking officials are rare in Mr. Putin’s Russia, where proximity to the president is a pivotal determinant of power and wealth. When officials fall out of favor, Mr. Putin often prefers to make sure they stay loyal by appointing them to another post rather than letting them leave government service.
In Mr. Kozak’s case, it was not immediately clear whether he would move to a different government job or become a private citizen. The Russian newspaper RBC said that Mr. Kozak was “considering various offers to go into business.”
Mr. Kozak’s departure represents one of the few known splinters in Mr. Putin’s inner circle since the start of his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The New York Times reported last month that Mr. Kozak was the only senior official close to Mr. Putin known to have spoken openly about his disagreement with the invasion.
Mr. Kozak’s criticism, which he never made public, channeled the frustration coursing through parts of the Moscow elite over Mr. Putin’s unwillingness to compromise in the war. But there is no sign that Mr. Kozak’s departure heralds a broader split among the officials closest to the Russian president.
Mr. Kozak had been at Mr. Putin’s side since the 1990s, when they worked together in St. Petersburg City Hall. He has taken on some of Mr. Putin’s most important assignments, including managing the preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and overseeing the integration of Crimea into Russia after Mr. Putin annexed the peninsula that same year.
Mr. Kozak was also spearheading Russia’s negotiations with Ukraine until the Feb. 24, 2022, invasion. He spoke out against it in a security council meeting days before and told associates later that he believed Mr. Putin’s war was a mistake, according to people close to the Kremlin cited by The Times last month. Earlier this year, Mr. Kozak advised Mr. Putin to stop the fighting in Ukraine and to hold peace negotiations, those people said.
The Times also reported that Mr. Kozak had urged Mr. Putin to undertake domestic overhauls, including placing Russia’s powerful security agencies under government oversight and building an independent judiciary.
Despite those tensions, Mr. Putin had been loath to cut ties with Mr. Kozak, given the Russian president’s loyalty to his longtime lieutenants.
But over the past three years, Mr. Kozak has lost power to another deputy chief of staff, Sergei V. Kiriyenko, who has embraced Mr. Putin’s invasion. Mr. Kozak’s responsibilities for dealing with parts of the former Soviet Union, like Moldova and the breakaway regions of Georgia, shifted to Mr. Kiriyenko, The Times reported.
On Aug. 29, Mr. Putin made that loss of power official by issuing an order shutting down two Kremlin directorates that reported to Mr. Kozak. The order proposed a new Kremlin directorate on “strategic partnership and cooperation” that is expected to report to Mr. Kiriyenko.
Anton Troianovski is the Moscow bureau chief for The Times. He writes about Russia, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
The post Longtime Putin Aide Who Opposed Ukraine War Is Granted Rare Resignation appeared first on New York Times.
