Alexei Dyumin, a former bodyguard and advisor to the current president of Russia, has become a member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation – this is according to the decree signed by Vladimir Putin and published on the Russian legal information portal. Dyumin is one of Putin's closest allies, who has risen quickly in the ranks in recent years.
Alexei Dyumin, 52, is a former security guard Vladimir Putinand later, among others governor of the Tula Oblast and former deputy minister of defense, overseeing the Russian arms industry. After the offensive of Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region in August this year, Vladimir Putin appointed him as an official “with full authority to eliminate the operational crisis” in this border region.
On Monday, a decree was published on the Russian legal information portal, which placed Dyumin on the Security Council of the Russian Federation. It is a presidential advisory body on state security policy, headed by Vladimir Putin. In addition to Dyumin, the Council will also include several other new members, including Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov and former Minister of Health Weronika Skvortsova.
Alexei Dyumin. Archive photo Reuters
Putin's former bodyguard
According to Reuters, Alexei Dyumin is one of the president's closest allies Russia. Reuters reminds that since the late 1990s, Dyumin worked in the security service of President Putin during his first and second terms. – I belonged to a group of officers who ensured the president's safety everywhere: in Russia and abroad – he quotes Dyumin as saying at that time.
The portal of the independent Russian-language television Nastoyashchee Vremya notes that Dyumin could also later have taken part in, among others, participation in a special operation aimed at deportation to Russia the deposed president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych.
In 2012, Alexei Dyumin was appointed deputy head of presidential security, and two years later he became deputy head of the GRU (Russian military intelligence). He was one of the key people behind annexation of Crimea. In 2015, he was appointed deputy minister of defense. In May this year, Putin appointed Dyumin as one of his assistants overseeing the arms industry, and at the end of the same month also as secretary of the advisory State Council, which fueled speculation about Dyumin's presidential potential, according to Reuters.
Meduza, Reuters, Nastoyashchee Vremya
Main photo source: Reuters