Another Putin Adviser Quits Amid Ukraine War

Valentine Yumashev, the son-in-law of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who helped Vladimir Putin come into power, has quit his role as one of the president’s advisers as the war in Ukraine stretches into its fourth month.

During his time serving Putin, Yumashev – who married Yeltsin's daughter Tatyana – remained unpaid. He also had very little influence on Putin’s decisions, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

While Yumashev held limited influence, he was one of the last links to Yeltsin's rule, a period marked by liberal reforms. Under Yeltsin’s rule, Russia also opened up to the West.

It is unclear why Yumashev left the position. The Kremlin has yet to release a statement regarding his departure. However, Lyudmila Telen, first deputy executive director of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center foundation, said Yumashev had already given up his role as Putin’s adviser in April.

"It was his initiative,” Telen said.

Telen did not elaborate on whether Yumashev’s “initiative” was connected to the war in Ukraine. However, Maria, Yumashev’s adult daughter, previously posted an image of the Ukrainian flag on her Instagram account along with the words “No to war.”

Yumashev’s exit followed that of former adviser Anatoly Chubais who resigned due to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Chubais served as the chief of staff during the Yeltsin administration.

Chubais was one of the few Kremlin officials who spoke out against the war. In the days following Putin’s announcement of the invasion, he began posting images of Boris Nemtsov, the opposition leader and vocal Putin critic who was killed in February 2015; as well as images of Yegor Gairdar, a liberal economist who warned about the danger of Putin’s imperial ambitions.

“In our arguments about Russia’s future I didn’t always agree with him,” Chubais wrote. “But it appears that Gaidar understood strategic risk better than I, and that I was wrong.”

In May, veteran Russian diplomat to the U.N. Office at Geneva Boris Bondarev also resigned, citing Putin’s “aggressive war against Ukraine and the entire Western world” as the reason, adding that he was “so ashamed” of his country for waging the war.