Sergei Ivanov - Career in Moscow

Career in Moscow

In August 1998, Vladimir Putin became head of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, and appointed Ivanov his deputy. As deputy director of the Federal Security Service, Ivanov solidified his reputation in Moscow as a competent analyst in matters of domestic and external security. On 15 November 1999 Ivanov was appointed secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, an advisory body charged with formulating presidential directives on national security, by Boris Yeltsin. In that position, Ivanov replaced Putin as Yeltsin's national security adviser upon Putin's promotion to the premiership.

As secretary, Ivanov was responsible for coordinating the daily work of the council, led by the president. But Ivanov's role as secretary was initially unclear to media observers. At the time of his appointment, the Security Council was a relatively new institution. (The council was set up by Yeltsin's tutelage in 1991-1992). Between 1992 and Ivanov's appointment in 1999, Yeltsin used the council as political expediency had dictated, but had not allow it to emerge as a relatively strong and autonomous institution. Ivanov's predecessors in that post, including Putin, according to Western analysts, were either the second most powerful political figure in Russia or the just another functionary lacking close access to the center of state power, depending on their relationship with Yeltsin.