Russian President Vladimir Putin recently promoted his former bodyguard Alexei Dyumin to his special aide in the Kremlin, adding to rumors that he will choose Alexei as his successor, The Sun reported on May 14.
Alexei, 51, from Kursk, who served as a presidential bodyguard during Putin's first and second terms, is a former FSB official who spoke with emotion about his career.
One of the experiences is even more memorable for Alexei, who once saved Putin's life from the feet of a vicious brown bear. Alexey revealed that the president was almost attacked by a brown bear while vacationing in a secret mountain villa, but fortunately in the end, the brown bear was successfully repelled by him.
Alexei recalled, "Naturally, I had weapons, and the president was upstairs. The bear and I looked at each other for a moment, then stepped back a bit. "I opened the door and shot it at its feet until I ran out of bullets in my pistol."
And after the brown bear fled, Alexei breathed a sigh of relief, and he quipped in an interview, "I sympathize with it." ”
In addition, Alexei has a little-known achievement. It is reported that in 2014 he secretly led a secret service and military operation to bring Yanukovych from Crimea to Russia.
According to reports, before being appointed as the president's new aide, Alexei served as deputy chief of the army general staff, deputy minister of defense and governor of the Tula region, with the rank of lieutenant general.
The ability to be reused by Putin has inevitably led to speculation about Alexei's future career, and some Russian analysts even believe that Alexei will replace Sergei Shoigu, who has been defense minister for a long time.
It was only surprising that in the end, former Russian Prime Minister and economist Andrei Belousov took Shoigu's place.
Since then, Russia's defense ministry has seen a series of personnel changes, including the abrupt resignation of Sergei Tsalikov, 67, first deputy defense minister, Alexey Kryvoruchko, 48, and Tatiana Shevtsova, 54, deputy defense minister.
At the same time, 55-year-old Russian Lieutenant General Yuri Kuznetsov was arrested at home on "criminal charges involving state secrets."
At around 5 a.m. on May 13, Russian armed men broke into the door with a crowbar and arrested Kuznetsov in his sleep.
On the other side, in addition to Alexei, a former bodyguard, Nikolai Patrushev, a veteran spy master and 72-year-old former head of Russia's Federal Security Service, has also been promoted to Putin's new aide.
Previously, Patrushev (pictured above) had been secretary of the Kremlin's Security Council, but this post will now be taken over by outgoing Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
As Putin's right-hand man, Patrushev is also seen as one of the best candidates for the future president. Another possible successor to Putin is Dmitry, 46, the son of a banker by Patrushev, who was recently promoted to deputy prime minister and previously served as agriculture minister.
Source: Sun, Bing