Putin Puts Former Bodyguard in Charge of Kursk Defense: Reports

Vladimir Putin has appointed Aleksey Dyumin, a former Kremlin agent, to take charge of defense in the Kursk region, seemingly replacing his army chief Valery Gerasimov's duties in the area, according to an official and multiple Russian pro-war military bloggers.

"My sources have confirmed this information in advance. Indeed, Dyumin was invited to a meeting [with Putin] yesterday, and he was instructed to oversee the conduct of the counterterrorist operation. But the main task is to defeat the Ukrainian Armed Forces that have invaded the territory of the Kursk region," Nikolay Ivanov, a Russian State Duma deputy from the Kursk region, told RTVI on Tuesday.

Newsweek couldn't independently verify the reports of Dyumin's appointment, and has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry for comment by email.

Reports of the appointment of Kremlin aide Dyumin—President Putin's former bodyguard and governor of the Tula region—came as Gerasimov was reported to be under fire after seemingly dismissing intelligence warnings that Kyiv's forces were preparing to launch an armored assault into Kursk, which borders Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region.

Bloomberg, citing an unnamed source close to the Kremlin, reported on August 8 that Kremlin officials are frustrated with Gerasimov's handling of the war. Similar accusatory reports regarding him were circulating on Russian Telegram channels last week, as Ukrainian troops advanced deeper inside the Kursk region.

Ukraine launched its armored assault into Kursk on August 6, and is reported to have swiftly seizing control of hundreds of square miles of Russian territory. The Russian investigative site Agentstvo said that, by the end of Monday, the area of military operations in the Kursk region had exceeded 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles).

Thousands of residents have been evacuated from the region, where Russia has declared a federal emergency.

Russia's military has also been forced to scramble to deploy additional resources to the region, diverting manpower away from the war it started in Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry on August 9 published videos of the country's military equipment being moved toward Kursk's Sudzhansky district, which is reported to now be partially occupied by Ukraine.

The Russian Telegram channel Rybar, founded by Mikhail Zvinchuk, a former employee of Russia's Defense Ministry, said that Dyumin's appointment indicates that, without Moscow's involvement, security forces were unable to resolve the "operational crisis in the Kursk region."

Last week, there was speculation that Putin had appointed Alexander Bortnikov, director of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), to take charge of operations in the Kursk region.

The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank, assessed on August 10 that Putin likely appointed Bortnikov because he "had previously proven himself to be an effective manager during crises that threatened Russian domestic stability and the Kremlin regime."

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