Putin and Ivanov knew each other since the 1970s when they both worked as young KGB officers in their hometown of Leningrad, as St. Petersburg was called during the Soviet times.

Sergei Ivanov, a former Russian defense minister once seen as a possible successor to President Vladimir Putin, has died. He was 73.

Бывший министр обороны России и экс-глава администрации президента Сергей Иванов умер в возрасте 73 лет. Об этом сообщила Единая лига ВТБ, почетным президентом…