Dmytro Kozak submitted his resignation after his influence in the administration decreased

Dmitry Kozak, a longtime associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has submitted his resignation as Deputy Head of the Russian Presidential Administration.

This was reported by Russian media, which stated that Kozak made the decision over the weekend and plans to hold a meeting with his team in the near future. He is considering the possibility of going into business, although he has not yet specified which segment he plans to operate in.

Famous Russian journalist Arkady Dubnov confirmed that Kozak personally initiated his resignation. According to him, he has long wanted to leave the civil service. Rumor has it that he was even offered a new position, but Kozak refused.

Kozak began to distance himself from Putin in 2022, after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to The New York Times, he tried to convince the country’s leadership that war was the wrong decision and even suggested exploring ways to initiate peace negotiations. According to the publication’s sources, he was the only high-ranking official who openly expressed disagreement with the aggression against Ukraine.

After that, his influence in the Kremlin significantly decreased: the management of the Ukrainian direction was transferred to another person, and Kozak was removed from essential processes. In August of this year, Putin disbanded two departments that were subordinate to Kozak.

Kozak began working with Putin in the 1990s at St. Petersburg City Hall. In the early 2000s, he held positions in the Russian government and the Kremlin. He served as Deputy Prime Minister from 2008 to 2020 and has since worked as Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration.

Interestingly, Dmitry Kozak is originally from the Kirovograd region and was educated at the Vinnytsia Polytechnic Institute.

It is worth noting that Russian propaganda has once again returned to fakes about “Ukrainian biolaboratories”, which are now being voiced by Sergey Aksyonov, a representative of the occupation administration of Crimea.