Russian Security Council Secretary, Igor Ivanov, has resigned

Moscow, July 9 (PTI): Russian Security Council Secretary, Igor Ivanov, has resigned from the post, a report said here today.

Ivanov, former Foreign Minister under Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, has submitted his resignation since he feels "redundant and without any clout in the key security affairs," 'Vedomosti' daily reported.

"Igor Ivanov is widely seen as the man of ex-president Boris Yeltsin's 'family' (inner circle) and might be replaced by close Putin ally, Viktor Cherkessov, presently Chief of the Federal Anti-narcotics agency," the report said.

Ivanov's resignation is expected to be accepted by Putin on July 15.

Russian national Security Council had been extremely influential in the past when Putin and his likely successor, Sergei Ivanov, were its secretaries, and had evolved foreign policy and national defence doctrines of the post-Yeltsin Russia.

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