Dmitry Kozak, longtime ally of President Vladimir Putin and Deputy Chief of the Presidential Administration, has submitted his resignation, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by Екатерина Штукина, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Dmitry Kozak (2014-07-31)Over the weekend, Kozak wrote a letter requesting to step down from his position by his own decision. Following Putin’s rise to the presidency in 2000, Kozak served first as Deputy Chief and later as First Deputy Chief of the Presidential Administration. He returned to the Presidential Administration in 2020 under Chief of Staff Anton Vaino. According to the paper, Kozak was the only senior Russian official who expressed dissent about the war behind closed doors.