On February 4, Vladimir Putin signed a decree dismissing Sergei Ivanov from the post of presidential special envoy for environmental protection, ecology, and transport. The position was created in 2016, when Ivanov stopped serving as head of the presidential administration.
According to Novaya Gazeta Kazakhstan, Ivanov showed little visible activity in either environmental or transport policy during his years in the role. Among the few public episodes the outlet mentions are his unsuccessful effort to push a recycling fee on shops for using plastic bags, statements in defense of Lake Baikal, and an article against the World Wildlife Fund’s work in Russia published shortly before the organization was declared “undesirable.”
“It was an empty place and will remain one,” Vladimir Slivyak, co-chair of the Ecodefense group, told the outlet, adding that it is hard to recall anything Ivanov did that was related to environmental policy.
Ivanov served in the KGB from the 1970s, including in Leningrad alongside Putin, and later worked in foreign intelligence. At the end of 1999 he became secretary of the Security Council, in 2001 he was appointed defense minister, and in 2007 he was considered a possible successor to Putin, though Dmitry Medvedev ultimately became president.
After 2008, Ivanov worked in government and later again alongside Putin in the Kremlin. He headed the presidential administration until August 2016, after which he was moved to the much less prominent envoy post.
Political scientist Ekaterina Shulman said Ivanov had largely ceased to play a significant role in domestic politics after 2016. Journalist Farida Rustamova, citing a source close to him, wrote that he had long wanted to retire and had shown steadily less interest in public service after the death of his elder son in 2014.
Ivanov still remains in the core membership of the Security Council, but the outlet argues that after leaving public service he is unlikely to continue taking part in its meetings. That could mark the final political retirement of one of Putin’s longtime associates.