Anatoly Chubais, the Russian climate envoy and an adviser to President Vladimir Putin, has reportedly resigned and left Russia on Wednesday, becoming the highest-level officer to quit the Kremlin since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month.
The 66-year-old business oligarch, who is known for overseeing Russian privatization under then-President Boris Yeltsin after the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, stepped down due to his opposition to Putin’s war in Ukraine, Bloomberg reported citing two sources familiar with the situation.
A Kremlin spokesperson has declined to confirm Chubais’ reasoning to other news outlets, however.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, told the Financial Times it is a “personal matter.” A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that Chubais left his position for ties with international organizations.
Russian newspaper Kommersant printed a photo of Chubais on Wednesday that purportedly shows him at an ATM in Istanbul.
