Chubais took over the position of personal representative of President Putin in 2020
Anatoly Chubais has decided to give up his position as the international envoy to Russian President Vladimir Putin, to be the most senior official in the Kremlin who will not resign since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to Russian reports, he is currently in Turkey with his wife.
Chubais coordinated Russia’s sustainable development goals at the international level.
After the invasion campaign began, he posted on social media a picture of a murdered dissident, which seemed to people to criticize the authority.
He did not write any comment on the photo of Boris Nemsov, which he posted on his account on Facebook, on the anniversary of his death, and he has not made any comment so far on the reasons for his resignation.
The TASS news agency reported that he had left Russia and had also resigned from his post.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Yes, Chubais resigned of his own volition. Whether to leave or stay in Russia is his business.”
With the exception of Peskov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, few officials close to President Putin have appeared in the media in recent weeks.
It is strange that the two most important security officials, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, “do not appear”, as well as officials of the Russian intelligence services, said the Ukrainian presidential adviser, Miklilo Podolyak, on Wednesday.
Chubais is not considered one of the influential in the Kremlin, despite holding the position of special representative of President Putin in relations with international organizations.
But he was better known for his controversial role in helping to reform the Russian economy in the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The privatization drive under President Boris Yeltsin led to the emergence of a large class of super-rich in the country.
But the opposition did not pay attention to Chubais’ resignation. Kira Yarmysh, a spokeswoman for the imprisoned dissident, Alexei Navalny, doubted that he had resigned in protest of the invasion, but rather that he did so “to escape with himself and with his money.”
Russia is suppressing all voices opposing the campaign to invade Ukraine, which began on February 24, and has asked state media to describe it as a “special military operation”.
Several journalists on state television have resigned, including Marina Ovsyanikova, who raised a banner reading “No to war” during a major television broadcast and told the Russians they were a victim of disinformation.
A new law was passed prohibiting the dissemination of “false news” regarding the war. The journalist, Alexander Nevzorov, became the most famous person to be tried on this charge, following he published on social media details of the Russian attack on the maternity hospital in the city of Mariupol, southern Ukraine.