Bloomberg: Putin Adviser Chubais quits over Ukraine war, leaves Russia

Russian climate envoy Anatoly Chubais has stepped down and left the country, citing his opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the situation, becoming the highest-level official to break with the Kremlin over the invasion, Bloomberg says. 

 

The media outlet reports that Chubais, 66, is one of the few 1990s-era economic reformers who’d remained in Putin’s government and had maintained close ties with Western officials. 

“Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment,” Bloomberg says. 

Last week, Arkady Dvorkovich, who was senior economic adviser to Dmitry Medvedev during his presidency and a deputy prime minister until 2018, stepped down as head of the state-backed Skolkovo technology fund after condemning the invasion. 

Dvorkovich, who’s also president of the International Chess Federation, is one of only a few former senior officials to speak out against the war, said the media outlet.