Putin appoints aide as Russian Security Council secretary

President Vladimir Putin this week appointed Col General Valentin Sobolev as the acting secretary to the powerful Russian Security Council, replacing Igor Ivanov, ahead of the parliamentary elections in December and presidential poll in March.

Sobolev, 60, is a security officer with 35 years of experience in Russia’s security apparatus. As Putin’s colleague, in the KGB and then FSB, he was appointed deputy secretary to the Security Council, in 1999, when Putin was Prime Minister.