The Kremlin said on Wednesday that President Vladimir Putin had appointed Alexei Dyumin, an aide and former bodyguard, as secretary of the State Council, an advisory body to the Russian head of state.
After being re-elected for another six-year term earlier this year, Putin made Dyumin an aide specialising in the defence industry and the Kremlin spoke at the time of other responsibilities for him.
A decree signed by Putin appointing him to the State Council role was published on the Kremlin's website on Wednesday morning.
Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, said earlier this month that many people believed that Putin saw Dyumin as his successor.
Putin, 71, is embarking on a new six-year term and is expected to rule for years to come and there is no reliable information on who he may favour to one day succeed him.
But the name of Dyumin, among others, has long been the subject of speculation among Moscow's political elite.
Dyumin, 51, was brought into the Kremlin earlier this month after serving as a regional governor of Russia's Tula region.
Dyumin entered Russia's Federal Guards Service (FSO), which ensures the security of the Kremlin elite, in 1995 and guarded Putin during his first and second terms. He has also worked as deputy head of the GRU (Russian military intelligence).
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