The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has dismissed General Pavel Konovalcik from his position as advisor to the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. The decree was published on the official portal of legal acts.
Konovalcik was part of the Security Council Secretary’s team, Sergei Shoigu. Previously, he worked under Shoigu’s leadership at the Ministry of Defense and, according to some information, would have coordinated the information operations troops. In the apparatus of the Security Council, Konovalcik was transferred in July 2024, shortly after Shoigu’s appointment to this position.
The American analysis center CNA linked the general to the 85th Center of the GRU, a technical unit of the Russian military intelligence service. According to the United States Department of Justice, this structure would coordinate the activity of the hacker group Fancy Bear, accused of cyber attacks on the Democratic Party in the USA, on the governments of some European countries and on some international organizations.
Konovalcik’s resignation is considered a new episode of a broad “purge” in Shoigu’s close circle. So far, almost all the key figures from the former defense minister’s team have either been dismissed or have become defendants in criminal cases.
A week before Konovalcik’s dismissal, the former first deputy of the defense minister and one of Shoigu’s closest collaborators, Ruslan Tsalikov, was detained. Previously, criminal cases were also opened against other former deputies of the ex-minister: Dmitri Bulgakov, Pavel Popov and Timur Ivanov.
Timur Ivanov was sentenced to 13 years in prison for embezzling over 4 billion rubles (approximately 44 million euros). Also, another case is being investigated against him regarding the taking of a bribe worth 1.4 billion rubles (about 15 million euros).
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