Vladimir Putin has appointed one of his former bodyguards to lead his personal effort to end Ukraine’s invasion of Russia.
Alexei Dyumin, who guarded Putin in his first two terms and is considered a potential successor for the Kremlin leader, was named “Kurator” of the operation to liberate the Kursk region, Russian military bloggers reported on Tuesday.
The move comes after Putin vowed to drive Ukraine off Russian land during a tense meeting with security chiefs on Monday, as Kyiv’s daring cross-border raid entered its seventh day of fighting.
The Kremlin leader appeared to be looking for a scapegoat amongst his top military brass for the Ukrainian operation, the first foreign invasion on Russian soil since the Second World War.
“The appointment of Alexei Dyumin as a senior official with a full range of powers to eliminate the operational crisis in the Kursk region is a sign that on their own and without interference from Moscow the security structures were unable to solve coordination problems,” Rybar, an authoritative Russian military blogger, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“Dyumin’s appointment means Putin’s team takes full control of the situation in order to stop the fraud window dressing, and also to begin to solve the problem rather than try to freeze it,” the blogger added.