Former Russian defense minister Sergei Ivanov dies at 73

Sergei Ivanov, the former Russian defense minister once considered a possible successor to Vladimir Putin, died at 73. The VTB United League basketball organization, where Ivanov served as honorary president, announced his death. The Kremlin confirmed it. Neither issued a cause of death.

Ivanov belonged to the generation of officials known as Russia’s siloviki, the security-service veterans who rose with Putin out of the Soviet KGB and came to dominate the state in the early years of his presidency. Born in Leningrad, now St Petersburg, he studied languages before joining the KGB, then moved through successor security organizations and became deputy director of the FSB under Putin.

In 2001, Putin appointed him defense minister. Ivanov held that post until 2007 and oversaw the armed forces during the second Chechen war. He then served as deputy prime minister from 2008 to 2011.

For a time, Ivanov was considered the most plausible heir to Putin. The two men knew each other from the 1970s, when they were young KGB officers in Leningrad. But when Putin stepped aside after two terms, he chose Dmitry Medvedev instead, and Ivanov moved into the presidential apparatus.

Ivanov was named Kremlin chief of staff on December 22, 2011, a post he held until August 12, 2016. He then became Putin’s special representative for environmental protection, ecology and transport, a role he kept until February 2026, when he was dismissed. He remained a member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.

He argued that U.S. missile-defense plans, the erosion of arms-control agreements and NATO expansion threatened Russian security. He was also targeted by U.S. and European Union sanctions after Russia’s war in Ukraine began.