Yeltsin’s son-in-law quits as adviser to Russia’s Putin: sources

Valentin Yumashev, the son-in-law of former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin who helped Vladimir Putin come to power, has quit his role as a Kremlin adviser, two people familiar with Yumashev’s thinking told Reuters.

Yumashev was an unpaid adviser with limited influence on Putin’s decision-making, but his departure removes one of the last links inside Putin’s administration to Yeltsin’s rule, a period of liberal reforms and Russia’s opening up towards the West.

Putin ordered his armed forces to attack Ukraine on February 24 in an invasion that Western governments say is an act of unjustified aggression and which Moscow calls a “special operation” necessary to protect Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Yumashev’s leaving his adviser role, and did not answer a call to his mobile number. Yumashev did not respond to a request for comment sent by Reuters.

Lyudmila Telen, first deputy executive director of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Centre foundation, where Yumashev is a member of the board of trustees, told Reuters that Yumashev had given up his Kremlin adviser role in April.