Formally, the replacement of some defendants is explained by age. So, for example, 75-year-old Yury Ushakov already exceeds the restriction on the stay of officials in the public service by 5 years (which, however, for some reason, was discovered only now). “Yuri Viktorovich rarely appears in his office. You understand, one disease, then another. And the president now needs people who must work in an enhanced mode and offer creative ideas in this far from simple time, ”a source in the AP explained to The Insider.
More important than Lavrov
Many key issues related to foreign policy are closed on Ushakov, and on behalf of the president he directly oversees personnel appointments in the Russian Foreign Ministry, which, according to some sources, irritated the head of the department, Sergei Lavrov. At the end of last year, Ushakov took an active part in the preparation of an ultimatum to NATO and the United States, when the Kremlin demanded security guarantees and a ban on the alliance's advance to the east. Then, in May of this year, he "looked after" negotiations between Ukraine and Russia on a cessation of hostilities. As you know, neither one nor the other was successful. Among other failures of Ushakov, the recent CSTO summit in Yerevan, where Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan refused to sign the final declaration, is called.
For the first time, the chair under Ushakov staggered back in 2017, when his closest assistant, Oleg Smolenkov, fled to the West, having been transmitting top secret information to the CIA for ten years. But then Putin was convinced that Smolenkov did not cause much damage, and the president himself did not want to lose the main Americanist in his entourage.
Apparently, together with Ushakov, members of his team, who started working with him back at the Russian Embassy in the United States, will leave: Alexei Shilin, head of his staff, Alexei Shishaev, deputy head of the Presidential Office for Foreign Policy (UPVP), and Konstantin Konstantin, deputy director of the North American Department of the Foreign Ministry Serednyakov.
However, Ushakov will not have to live in poverty in retirement – as journalists found out , his family owns real estate for several hundred million rubles, and his daughter Tatyana changes expensive foreign cars like gloves.
looking out for africa
Most likely, after Ushakov, the deputy head of the UPVP Philip Ilyichev, who became very famous after the Sabantuy in the reception room of the head of the Presidential Administration Anton Vaino, will leave his post. The structure of the UPVP includes the American, European, Asian, African, Australian departments, and even has its own curator of the Arctic (Ivan Zhudro, who used to work in the Moscow laundry No. 55). In addition to international activities, UPVP employees, together with the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSVTS), participate in negotiations on the supply of Russian weapons to friendly countries. In the Kremlin, Ilyichev is called the "watcher" of Africa and Israel, and his responsibilities include collecting information, analytics, preparing official visits and lobbying for the interests of Rosoboronexport in subordinate countries. In 2019, Ilyichev was a member of the organizing committee of the Russia-Africa summit, which was held with pomp in Sochi.
The assets of the watcher for Africa include his numerous contacts in the power structures of Algeria, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Egypt and Libya. He is also credited with a close acquaintance with the now former South African President Jacob Zuma. In 1963, Zuma joined the South African Communist Party and underwent sabotage training at the base of militants in Mozambique, where there were instructors from the GRU. He then headed intelligence for the African National Congress (ANC) and returned to the country after the fall of apartheid. During Zuma's presidency, South Africa joined the BRICS and pursued a foreign policy that was beneficial to the Kremlin.
True, far from the best times have come for the African “friend of the Kremlin”: in his homeland, Zuma was accused of numerous corruption crimes and since July 2021 he has been serving a 15-month prison term for refusing to testify to the court. The current president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, although he communicates with Putin, is noticeably drifting towards China, and Ilyichev failed to establish business relations with him.
The results of the activities of the UPVP in Israel, where the overwhelming majority of the population supports Ukraine, turned out to be rather meager. With the help of the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv, the local branch of Rossotrudnichestvo and the GRU, they managed to mobilize two dozen people who walked under video cameras with Russian flags and chanted a couple of times: “Putin! Victory!”, and even those were natives of Moldova.
The Insider's source in the AP found it difficult to say what exactly is the reason for Ilyichev's resignation, but suggested that it may be related to the Kremlin's unsuccessful attempts to oust supplies of Ukrainian wheat and corn from the African food market.
Watching the CIS
On the sidelines of Staraya Square, the imminent resignation of the head of the President's Office for Interregional and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, Igor Maslov, is being discussed. And even the complete elimination of this unit in the structure of the AP. The Directorate for Relations with the Near Abroad was created in 2005, after the victory of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and since then people from the Foreign Intelligence Service have alternately replaced each other in the chair of the head. “Culturologists” in uniform are actively interfering in the political life of the CIS countries, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, recruiting politicians, journalists and have appeared in several election campaigns, funding the pro-Kremlin opposition. For example, in Georgia, where the Kremlin supported the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia, but in the last parliamentary elections, this marginal party won only 3.14% of the vote.
Previously, Foreign Intelligence Colonel Maslov served in the Balkan and Austrian residencies of the Foreign Intelligence Service, and then he was invited to the Presidential Administration, where he headed the “Moldovan department”. During the presidential elections in Moldova in 2021, Maslov coordinated the work of the campaign headquarters of Moscow’s protégé Igor Dodon and reported to the leadership about the latter’s imminent victory. However, contrary to all optimistic forecasts, the pro-European politician Maia Sandu won.
“After the victory of Madam Sandu, a real shock happened in the presidential administration. The man blew the election, and everyone was waiting for his resignation. But, to everyone's surprise, Igor Venediktovich was promoted to the head of the entire department, ”a source told The Insider on Staraya Ploshchad.
Meanwhile, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, most of the Kremlin's propaganda projects in the CIS countries had to be curtailed, joint seminars and visits were canceled, because, as one of the department's employees put it, "people shied away from us." In fact, an entire Kremlin department with a huge budget deals only with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, where Maslov is still welcomed with open arms.
Watching the Transcaucasus
It is quite possible that Maslov's deputy, the head of the planning department, Valery Maksimov, who is practically out of work, will also leave the Presidential Administration. FSB reserve colonel Maksimov graduated from the Moscow Higher Border Red Banner Command School of the KGB of the USSR (now MPI FSB), then served in operational positions in the Central, Central Asian and North-Eastern regions of the country. In 1995, he was transferred to the central apparatus of the FSB to the post of head of the department. In 2006, the then head of the department for relations with the near abroad, Modest Kolerov, invited the Chekist to oversee the Transcaucasus.
Colonel Maksimov is called the "godfather" of the famous propagandist Sergei Mikheev, who constantly participates in Vladimir Solovyov's TV show. Before becoming the Kremlin's sing-along, political strategist Mikheev participated in election campaigns in Latvia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Kyrgyzstan, and then sent progress reports to his curator Maksimov. The editors have at their disposal Mikheev's memos about his secret meetings with Iranian officials, as well as complaints about the poor quality of the dollars that he is given out by the Presidential Administration.
In recent years, Colonel Maximov led a large team of pro-Kremlin agents of influence in the Transcaucasus, but with the onset of aggression against Ukraine, the network fell apart, and some "friends of the Kremlin" refused to cooperate, citing the atrocities of Russian troops in the neighboring country. In addition, the once-native department also has claims to the ex-Chekist Maksimov: from a working computer, he actively communicates with (as Putin calls them) girls with reduced social responsibility, and makes appointments for them in a company car not far from the presidential administration.