Putin asks Federation Council to remove Alexey Kudrin as Audit Chamber head. Sources say he's transferring to Yandex.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted a request to the Federation Council asking for head Alexey Kudrin to be dismissed from his post as Audit Chamber head, the Russian state outlet RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday, citing Federation Council Budget and Financial Markets Committee Chair Anatoly Artamonov.
According to an unnamed source who spoke to RIA Novosti, the Federation Council will consider Putin’s request on November 30.
As Meduza has previously reported (in Russian), Kudrin's skills are wanted at Yandex. According to the Telegram channel Agentstvo and Forbes, Yandex founder Arkady Volozh offered Kudrin a 5 percent stake in the company in exchange for coming to work there and helping him divide his assets.
Sources close to Yandex’s leadership told Meduza that Kudrin himself asked Putin to coordinate his transition from the government to the tech company back on September 15. The Kremlin has denied that such a meeting took place.
On November 25, RBC and The Bell reported that Kudrin had coordinated with Putin both his move to Yandex and the division of the company’s assets. That same day, Yandex confirmed that its leaders plan to divide the company into separate Russian and international entities.
Citing sources close to Kudrin, Agentstvo reported on November 29 that he was planning to make a secret trip to Istanbul to take part in a meeting of Yandex’s board of directors.
