... Over the past several weeks, Mr. Putin has conducted a number of major reshuffles in the Russian government, replacing four regional governors and the head of the Customs Service, and dismissing the country’s ambassador to Ukraine.
Mr. Ivanov has known Mr. Putin since the 1970s, when they both started careers in the Soviet spy agency, the K.G.B. At one point, they even shared an office in a K.G.B. building in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg.
Once Mr. Putin moved to Moscow and became the head of the Federal Security Service in 1998, Mr. Ivanov became a member of his inner circle. After Mr. Putin ascended to the presidency, Mr. Ivanov held a variety of influential posts, including defense minister and deputy prime minister.
Analysts often described Mr. Ivanov as one of the leading members of the security-oriented, conservative camp of the Russian government. He was one of the top candidates to succeed Mr. Putin as president in 2008 but lost out in a bureaucratic battle to Dmitri A. Medvedev, now the prime minister. ...