According to unofficial reports, Dmitry Kozak personally asked to be relieved of his post. Sources say he had been seeking to leave since spring 2022. In the end, unlike many figures in the Russian government who, as the article notes, would now like to step away, he was allowed to do so.
The article stresses that his departure was not accompanied by any extraordinary circumstances. According to those sources, Kozak simply said that he wanted to move into business.
“Putin did not state in the decree that Kozak was leaving of his own accord. He is dissatisfied,” former Echo of Moscow editor-in-chief Alexey Venediktov wrote on his Telegram channel on September 18.
The piece argues that what is striking is not so much Kozak’s fall from favor after 26 years working alongside Vladimir Putin, but the fact that he managed to remain close to the Russian president for so long.
A person who has known Kozak well for nearly a decade and a half and asked not to be named described him in comments to Novaya-Europe as a workaholic and a talented interlocutor who speaks bluntly and is interesting to talk to.