Putin ally Sergei Ivanov dies at 73, Reuters says

Sergei Ivanov, one of Vladimir Putin’s closest longtime associates from the Leningrad KGB years, died on Friday at 73, removing another member of the president’s original security-service circle from public life. The Kremlin confirmed the death without giving a cause, and Putin sent condolences to Ivanov’s family and friends.

Ivanov’s path tracked the rise of the hardline elite that came to dominate Russia under Putin. Born in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, he and Putin first met in the 1970s while both served in the Leningrad directorate of the KGB. That shared background in the security services helped make Ivanov one of the siloviki, the former intelligence and law-enforcement officials who became central to the Kremlin’s political order.

His career put him at the center of that system. Ivanov served as defense minister from 2001 to 2007, then moved into other senior posts, including Kremlin chief of staff and deputy prime minister. In 2008, when Putin shifted to the premiership because of term limits, Ivanov was widely viewed as the most likely person to inherit the presidency. His later years were spent in more advisory and representative roles, but he remained a symbol of the era when Putin’s inner circle was built from men with shared security backgrounds.

The VTB United League, where Ivanov served as honorary president, first announced his death. The announcement underscored how far his influence stretched beyond formal state office, into institutions tied to the Russian establishment. The Associated Press noted that Ivanov had also been targeted by U.S. and European Union sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine, placing him among the senior officials whose legacy is now tied not only to Putin’s ascent but to the conflict that has defined the current stage of his rule.

No official cause of death was provided. Some reports had linked Ivanov to rumors of a severe long-term illness, but those claims were never confirmed publicly. His death closes another chapter in the generation that helped Putin consolidate power over the military, intelligence services and foreign policy, and it leaves fewer surviving figures from the period when the Kremlin’s current system took shape.