Longtime Putin Ally and Former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov Dies at 73

Sergei Ivanov, one of Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s oldest allies who spent over two decades in top government positions, died on June 26, 2026, at the age of 73, The Moscow Times reported on June 26.

The VTB United League , where Ivanov served as honorary president, announced his death but gave no cause, though rumors state he was severely ill. Ivanov and Putin first met in the 1970s while working together for the KGB in Leningrad. When Putin became head of the FSB in 1998, he made Ivanov his deputy. Later, Ivanov served as Secretary of the Security Council and Defense Minister, and by 2007, he was widely considered the top candidate to succeed Putin as president.

However, Ivanov lost that internal power struggle to Dmitry Medvedev, who was the Russian President from 2008 to 2012. Prominent Ukrainian political commentator Vitaly Portnikov explained that Ivanov’s political defeat was absolute. “Sergei Ivanov became not just the first to die from Putin’s closest inner circle,” Portnikov stated. “He is also the closest ally who completely lost the internal power struggle.” Portnikov added that a man once seen as Russia’s next president “dies needed by no one, without any serious position in the Russian leadership.”

While observers at the time thought choosing Medvedev meant Russia was picking a softer path, Portnikov called this “an absolute illusion,” explaining that Medvedev was actually a fierce hawk whose presidency led directly to the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008. Ivanov instead represented a wing of security officials who wanted to control neighboring countries through subtle political sabotage rather than open war.

“It is often harder to resist a saboteur than to resist a butcher,” Portnikov noted. “However, the fact that a man who hoped to conquer neighbors using a scalpel lost to those who offered a sledgehammer says a lot about the processes of recent decades.” Portnikov highlighted that Ivanov’s political life effectively ended right before the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. During the famous televised Security Council meeting where Putin demanded absolute loyalty for the war, Ivanov did not even speak.

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The Moscow Times noted that Ivanov’s influence had been dropping steadily for years. His attitude toward his work changed deeply in 2014 after his oldest son died in an accident in the United Arab Emirates. By 2016, he was pushed into a minor role as an ecology envoy, a post he finally left in February 2026.

Former Russian Central Bank official Sergei Aleksashenko stated that Ivanov was one of the smarter members of Putin’s team whom people could actually debate with. Aleksashenko pointed out that Ivanov’s death closely mirrors the aging inner circle of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, whose top officials all began dying off at a similar age right before the Soviet system collapsed, according to The Moscow Times.

Ivanov’s death comes at a time when Putin’s remaining inner circle is gripped by paranoia and internal warfare. A recent investigation has revealed that Putin has been on heightened alert over coup fears and assassination threats, choosing to run the country from fortified bunkers.

It also highlighted discord among Russia’s top security chiefs, who are blaming each other for security failures while viewing Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu as a potential threat to the regime.

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