Andrei Terekhov and Anya Vvedenskaya have noticed that Viktor Ivanov has been opining on foreign policy. (Link in Russian).
This is interesting, not so much because of what he is saying, but that he is saying it at all. In his role as Presidential aide, Ivanov is not technically supposed to talk about foreign affairs:
Viktor Ivanov, one of President Vladimir Putin’s closest aides,
has become noticeably more active in foreign affairs. Ivanov visited
Luxembourg (currently chairing the European Union) on April 15, and
publicly spelled out some details about Russia’s relationship with
one of its strategic partners. Officially, Ivanov’s post does not
entitle him to make foreign policy statements; however, this former
FSB colonel-general used to be considered a curator of the Kremlin’s
CIS policy. Thus, the words of one of the Putin administration’s
most influential representatives take on special signficance in the
lead-up to a Russia-EU summit where the battle for the former Soviet
Union will be the chief intrigue.
Ivanov was given an extra opportunity to intensify his contacts
with key foreign governments by his recent appointment to the
Victory Day organizing committee, responsible for preparations for the May 9 celebrations in Moscow. All the same, some Western
observers say that Ivanov - a member of the Kremlin’s security and
law enforcement (siloviki) faction - is building up his foreign
policy experience with a view to promotion to a new post involving
participation in contact with the outside world.
Ivanov certainly appears to be someone worth watching over the next couple of years. The article goes on to provide some more background:
Presidential aide Viktor Ivanov is responsible for human
resources policy within the Kremlin administration. He is in charge
of the presidential directorate for personnel and state awards, the presidential directorate for state service, and the presidential
directorate for ensuring constitutional rights. He is the deputy
chairman of the Victory Day organizing committee. As a veteran of
the Afghanistan war, he is a patron of war veteran organizations. He
is also responsible for the presidential commission on citizenship,
and the presidential commission for preliminary consideration of
federal court judge candidates.
This translation, originally published by Nezavisimaya Gazeta, was sent to me in the Johnson’s Russia List email, and I don’t have a link to the entire article. If I find one, I will of course, publish it.
