The President released Sysuev
The President finally signed a decree on the resignation of Oleg Sysuev from the post of first deputy head of the Kremlin administration “in connection with a transfer to another job.” It is still unknown what kind of job Sysuev will switch to. However, it seems that he is lost for politics in the near future.

In the last six months, Sysuev submitted his resignation twice. The first time was in the spring, when, in his own words, he was tired of, having virtually no real powers, nevertheless being responsible for all the actions of the Kremlin “with his image” (as soon as it became clear that Dmitry Yakushkin’s communication with the press was not going well, Sysuev became the temporary “face of the Kremlin”). Primakov’s resignation finished off Sysuev: the day before he swore to journalists that no personnel decrees were being prepared. Sysuev swore completely sincerely, since the Kremlin authorities “forgot” to inform him about the “castling”. Unlike the first resignation letter, he decided to immediately make the second one public. According to Kremlin etiquette, this means cutting off all avenues of retreat—the president is not used to begging to stay.
Nevertheless, Alexander Voloshin, according to Kommersant's information, still made several attempts to convince Sysuev. The attempts were explained by an elementary shortage of personnel in the Kremlin. There was talk that they even wanted to fill Sysuev’s place with such an already played Kremlin card as Igor Shabdurasulov. However, as a high-ranking Kremlin official recently assured Kommersant, “they’ve already changed their minds about Shabdurasulov.”
Sysuev himself, having resigned, almost immediately went on vacation abroad for two weeks. And in recent days, according to employees of his office, he regularly came to work, drank coffee, watched TV, talked on the phone and left.
According to Kommersant, Sysuev had plans to return to the government, but he was not given the post he would like to receive. Sysuev's entourage neither confirms nor denies rumors that he agreed to take a prominent position in the Alfa banking group. At the same time, the assertion that he was offered to join the management of Aeroflot is hotly refuted. In any case, as stated, Sysuev has firmly decided to go into business and considers himself lost to politics. He was not even present at the recent congress of the Right Cause coalition, with which he had previously actively sympathized.

ANTON J-LEBEDEV

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 107 dated June 23, 1999, p. 3