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Russian leader Vladimir Putin selected his aide and former chief bodyguard to oversee the Kremlin’s defense of Kursk, according to a Russian parliament member for the assailed region.
“Indeed, Aleksey Gennadyevich Dyumin was summoned yesterday and tasked with supervising the counterterrorist operation,” Ivanov told RTVI.
Ivanov said Putin told Dyumin to supervise military operations in Kursk, with the primary goal of ousting Ukrainian forces that invaded the Russian border region last week.
The Kremlin has not officially announced Dyumin’s appointment.
Bloomberg also reported that Dyumin had been given the role, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
The Kremlin’s press service did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.
Dyumin attended a meeting on Monday about the Kursk incursion with Putin and his top brass, which included military chief Valery Gerasimov and Federal Security Services Director Alexander Bortnikov.
The Kremlin listed Dyumin as a “presidential aide.”
Dyumin, 51, served as Putin’s chief bodyguard and assistant in the latter’s earliest years as Russia’s leader.
Among his reported feats is his account of how he used his pistol to scare off a bear that would have entered Putin’s quarters while the leader was sleeping.
In around 2014, he was appointed to oversee Russia’s special forces and played a key role in the annexation of Crimea. He was then made Deputy Defense Minister for a month in 2015 before being named governor of Tula in 2016.
He returned to Putin’s side in May when he was appointed secretary of the State Council, the Russian president’s advisory body.
A relatively young member of Putin’s inner circle, Dyumin is believed to be favored by Putin. Heavy state media coverage of the former bodyguard and his meteoric rise in Russia’s leadership have fueled speculation that he may be earmarked as Putin’s successor.
When the now-deceased head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, staged a rebellion against Putin, Dyumin was rumored to have been instrumental in orchestrating negotiations. His press service previously denied this.
He also plays ice hockey with the Russian leader, often as a goalie for the opposing team. It’s led to jabs from sports observers that his job in the rink is to let Putin score.
His alleged appointment as head of the Kursk defense came as Russian military bloggers and journalists wrote earlier this week that they had received similar news, though many could not confirm it at the time.
Popular pro-war Telegram channel Rybar wrote that Dyumin’s new role signaled how Putin’s inner circle was “taking full control of the situation” in a bid to solve its crisis in Kursk.
“Dyumin is Putin’s man. He will not allow the President to be deceived in reports to himself or others.” wrote state media military correspondent Alexander Sladkov on Tuesday.
It’s unclear how Dyumin’s appointment will affect the Kursk-related role of the FSO’s Bortnikov, who was initially believed to have been the one tapped last week to oversee counter-invasion efforts.
“Dyumin’s alleged appointment sparked widespread speculation among Russian mil bloggers and political commentators about Putin’s disappointment in Russian security agencies and speculations about an upcoming military-political reshuffling,” wrote the Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has continued its assault in Kursk, with its troops seen fighting behind Russian defensive lines.
Kyiv has been relatively quiet on how successful it’s deeming the operation, though it said on Monday that it captured nearly 400 square miles of Russian territory in several days and seized 28 villages.
