2022-03-23 16:21:06
(Bloomberg) -- Russian climate envoy Anatoly Chubais has
stepped down and left the country, citing his opposition to
President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, according to two
people familiar with the situation, becoming the highest-level
official to break with the Kremlin over the invasion.
Chubais, 66, is one of the few 1990s-era economic reformers
who’d remained in Putin’s government and had maintained close
ties with Western officials. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Known as the architect of Russia’s 1990s privatizations,
Chubais gave Putin his first Kremlin job in the mid-1990s and
initially welcomed his rise to power at the end of that decade.
Under Putin, Chubais took top jobs at big state companies until
the president named him envoy for sustainable development last
year.
Since the war, the government has stepped up pressure on
domestic critics of the invasion. Putin warned on March 16 that
he would cleanse Russia of the “scum and traitors” he accuses of
working covertly for the U.S. and its allies. Facing economic
meltdown, the Russian leader accused the West of wanting to
destroy Russia.
“Any people, and particularly the Russian people, will
always be able to tell the patriots from the scum and traitors
and spit them out like a midge that accidentally flew into their
mouths,” Putin said. “I am convinced that this natural and
necessary self-cleansing of society will only strengthen our
country, our solidarity, cohesion and readiness to meet any
challenge.”
Last week, Arkady Dvorkovich, who was senior economic
adviser to Dmitry Medvedev during his presidency and a deputy
prime minister until 2018, stepped down as head of the state-
backed Skolkovo technology fund after condemning the invasion.
Dvorkovich, who’s also president of the International Chess
Federation, is one of only a few former senior officials to
speak out against the war.
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