Who from Putin’s circle fell into disgrace and how did it end for them: Kozak, Klebanov, Cherkesov and Pugachev

Why did influential officials and businessmen suddenly lose favor with the president?

Deputy head of the Russian presidential administration Dmitry Kozak completely disappeared from view after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, and then completely lost his post. Some media sources say that the official opposed the war, which is why he fell into disgrace. “Layout” tells who else disappeared from Vladimir Putin’s inner circle and why.

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Ilya Klebanov and readiness for dirty work

Former engineer of the Leningrad Optical-Mechanical Association Ilya Klebanov first headed the enterprise, and then joined the Council of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs - the lobbying structure of the “red directors”. In 1998, he became the first vice-governor of St. Petersburg, and a year and a half later he became deputy prime minister - first to Sergei Stepashin, and then to Vladimir Putin.

In this position, Klebanov was called a representative of the St. Petersburg team of technocrats. He was responsible for the military-industrial complex and headed a government commission to investigate the causes of the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine, which was dangerous for Putin’s early regime. The Kommersant newspaper then wrote that the Deputy Prime Minister was always ready to take responsibility and take on “any dirty work.”

Soon after Putin was confirmed in power, the technocrat lost the bureaucratic struggle to the president’s old friends and colleagues. In 2003, he went back to St. Petersburg as the presidential envoy to the Northwestern Federal District. He held this position until 2011, without making any mark on it, and then he lost it too - he was removed from his post by President Dmitry Medvedev.

After this, Klebanov held director positions at Sovcomflot and Transneft for some time. In 2022, Moskovsky Komsomolets reported that Klebanov emigrated from the country. The newspaper later denied this information and apologized to him.

In 2023, Klebanov was mentioned as the head of the board of directors of the Shvabe holding, part of Rostec, which produces optical-electronic systems, including military ones. In the same year, he joined the board of trustees of the Russian Science Foundation.

Viktor Cherkesov and the KGB hook

Cherkesov is a former colleague of Putin’s in the KGB. He conducted one of the last cases in the Soviet Union under the article “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.” Putin took him into the central apparatus when he headed the intelligence service, appointing the general as his first deputy. He worked in Putin's election headquarters, was his plenipotentiary representative, and in 2003 the president appointed Cherkesov the first director of the Federal Drug Control Service.

In this post, Putin’s former deputy took an unprecedented step for the president’s team, publicly speaking about the internal war of the security forces in an article for the Kommersant newspaper (the same text mentioned that Russia “fell into the abyss, but was saved by hanging on a KGB hook”).

This article was the beginning of his disgrace. In 2008, the general lost his position in the Federal Drug Control Service, and later became a State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, but he stayed there for only one term. After this he held no office and died at the age of 72 from heart disease. Putin did not come to his funeral.

Sergei Pugachev and the image of an Orthodox banker

Entrepreneur Sergei Pugachev registered one of the first banks in St. Petersburg in 1991, and then moved to Moscow, where he began purchasing industrial assets. He communicated closely with the country's leadership, and members of President Yeltsin's family held accounts in his bank.

In Moscow, the banker began to communicate closely with Putin, who moved to the capital - this helped his business after he was elected president. The banker and the president were family friends, Pugachev also became friends with Putin’s St. Petersburg entourage. Mezhprombank got the opportunity to buy large state assets and even planned the construction of a hotel on Red Square. By 2000, the bank became one of the largest in the country, but collapsed in 2010, unable to withstand the consequences of the global financial crisis.

Moscow accused Pugachev of deliberately bankrupting the bank and tried to recover 68 billion rubles from him. He himself claims that he fell into disgrace due to the intersection of his business interests with the interests of the president. Pugachev says that he did not sell shipbuilding assets to the president’s close ally Igor Sechin at Putin’s request. Now he lives in Europe. In Russia, a court sentenced him in absentia to 14 years in a fraud case. French authorities refused to extradite him.

Dmitry Kozak and the peace plan for Ukraine

A former prosecutor and one of Putin's longest-standing associates in the St. Petersburg mayor's office, Dmitry Kozak has long been considered a model technocrat within the Putin system. A native of the Ukrainian village of Bandurovo, he studied at Leningrad State University - the same place as Putin and Medvedev, and after university he worked in the prosecutor's office in positions related to the supervision of officials and in the mayor's office of St. Petersburg.

In the Putin administration, Kozak oversaw administrative reform, reform of self-government and the judicial system, and prepared for the Olympics in Sochi. His reforms sharply strengthened presidential power: abolished the lifelong status of judges, weakened the prosecutor's office and limited the freedom of legal practice.

Later, Putin appointed Kozak to the Ukrainian direction - the official was supposed to ensure the implementation of the Minsk agreements, which provide for the “legal reintegration” of the “LPR” and “DPR” on special, Russian, conditions. The negotiations ended in failure, but the Russian official was called one of the last defenders of diplomacy in Vladimir Putin’s entourage.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Kozak lost this direction. Reuters reported that the official suggested that Putin use the agreements reached with Kiev on Ukraine’s non-entry into NATO as a basis for refusing a military operation. In the first days after the invasion, he still tried to negotiate peace , but was soon completely removed from this process.

In September 2025, he resigned. The Agency claims that before his dismissal, the official wrote a letter to Putin about the war in Ukraine, where he criticized the invasion “in very harsh terms.”

Photo: Artur Widak/NurPhoto

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