President’s assistant Ushakov refused to comment on “rumors” about the upcoming resignation

The assistant to the President of the Russian Federation on foreign policy issues Yuri Ushakov refused to comment on the "rumors" about his upcoming resignation from this post.

“I don’t comment on rumors, and in general it is not customary to comment in the administration (president),” RIA Novosti quotes Ushakov’s answer to journalists to the request to comment on the information that appeared in the media that he will soon leave his post and his place may take the current press secretary of Vladimir Putin Dmitry Peskov.

Earlier, Peskov himself called this information published by Kommersant , Pure Rumors, which he does not intend to comment on. At the same time, Peskov said that for Ushakov’s resignation “there are no signs”.

The publication of Kommersant said that in March 2017, Ushakov was 70 years old and he can continue his career as an ambassador in one of the European countries, and in the Kremlin, meanwhile, they are actively looking for a replacement for him. According to the publication, in addition to Peskov, this post also considers the candidacy of the Russian ambassador in China Andrei Denisov and some senior employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Ushakov holds the current post since May 21, 2012. Prior to that, he worked for four years as deputy head of the apparatus in the government under the leadership of Putin, where he oversaw the international agenda of the head of the office.

Later, some foreign media called Ushakov "a direct channel of communication with Vladimir Putin." Thus, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet called it one of the officials engaged in secret diplomacy to resolve the conflict of Moscow and Ankara after the Turkish Air Force shot down the Russian Su-24 bomber in Syria in November 2015. Presumably, it was Ushakov who handed the letter with an apology of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Vladimir Putin, after which the relations of the two countries began to warm.