Bodyguard Who Saved Putin from Brown Bear Becomes State Council Secretary

Published 29 May.2024 20:10(KST)

Alexey Dyumin Mentioned as a Candidate Successor to Putin

Alexei Dyumin, a former bodyguard famous for saving Russian President Vladimir Putin from a bear, has been appointed as a State Secretary of the State Council.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to major foreign media on the 29th, the Kremlin announced that President Putin signed a decree appointing Dyumin as State Secretary to support the presidential administration. The previous secretary, Igor Levitin, was dismissed.

Since President Putin began his fifth term through the inauguration on the 7th, Dyumin has been consecutively appointed to key positions close to the president. Following his appointment as an advisor on defense industry on the 14th, he has now taken on another important role.

Dyumin was a presidential bodyguard in the Federal Protective Service (FSO) during Putin’s first and second terms. He is often mentioned as a potential successor to President Putin. He is known for having saved President Putin when the president encountered a brown bear at Putin’s secret mountain retreat.

He has also participated in ice hockey events with President Putin and was active in an amateur ice hockey club alongside Sergey Shoigu, Secretary of the Security Council. Dyumin served as Deputy Minister of Defense from December 2015 until he was appointed Acting Governor of Tula Province in 2016. In the same year’s election, Dyumin was elected Governor of Tula Province and was re-elected in 2021.