Senior Kremlin official Anatoli Chubais resigned and left Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine

Anatoli Chubais, the architect of Russia's post-Soviet economic reforms, and current Russian presidential representative for sustainable development, resigned from office and left the country due to the war in Ukraine, becoming the highest-ranking official to resign following the invasion.

“It's true. Anatoli Borisovich (patronymic of Chubais) leaves office,” said a source from the environment of the former Russian Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Another source told the agency that Chubais left Russia. “He has resigned and left,” he said.

According to Bloomberg News, which first reported the news, Chubais's resignation was motivated by his “opposition to President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine” by two knowledgeable individuals. According to the Russian daily Kommersant, Chubais was seen yesterday in Istanbul.

The resignation of the famous economist was also confirmed by Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov.” Chubais left office on his own initiative. Whether he's gone or not, that's his personal matter,” he added to Interfax.

After the war began, Chubais had posted a photo on Facebook of a murdered opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, in what was considered a critical gesture towards the Kremlin. He did not include comments to accompany the photo on the anniversary of his murder, on February 27.

Chubais, who held senior positions for the past 30 years, held the position of presidential representative since December 2020.

The news coincides with reports of the departure from Russia of several representatives of the cultural and business world opposed to the military campaign in Ukraine.

Apart from Peskov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, few members of President Putin's circle have appeared in public in recent weeks.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak said on Wednesday that it was interesting that the two leading Kremlin security figures, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, were not “in sight”, along with the heads of Russia's secret services.

Chubais became known for his role in the reforms of Russia's economy in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union. Possibly the most important were the privatizations under President Boris Yeltsin, which helped create a large number of very wealthy oligarchs.

Opposition figures were not impressed by Chubais's resignation. The spokeswoman for imprisoned leader Alexei Navalny, Kira Yarmysh, questioned claims that it was a protest against the war, rather than that she is fearing “for her own skin and her own money.”

Russia took drastic measures against criticism of the invasion, which began on February 24, and demanded that state media describe it as a “special military operation”.

Several state television journalists resigned, including Channel One editor Marina Ovsyannikova, who showed a sign reading “Stop the War!” during a prime-time news broadcast, telling the Russians that they were being lied to.

Keep reading: