Russian President Vladimir Putin's former adviser and Soviet-era dissident Gleb Pavlovsky died on Monday at the age of 71 after a prolonged illness, his family said.
An influential figure in Russia's post-Soviet political architecture and in Putin's initial tenure, Pavlovsky turned critic of the Russian president after his adviser contract was terminated in 2011.
"Relatives and friends of Gleb Pavlovsky express their deep gratitude to everyone who supported and helped all these months, went through all of this with us, endured, understood and protected," the family said on Pavlovsky's Telegram messaging channel.
There were no further details provided about Pavlovsky's illness.
Pavlovsky, who called himself a "political technologist," was key in forming Russia's "managed democracy" when an advisor to Putin, which led to tight control of civil society and the opposition.
He was born in the Black Sea port of Odesa in Ukraine in 1951 and moved to Moscow in 1974, where he joined the circle of Soviet dissidents, the business daily Vedomosti said.
He was sentenced to internal exile in the northern republic of Komi in the 1980s and returned to Moscow by 1985.
The English-language Moscow Times newspaper described Pavlovsky as "one of the most eloquent voices on the machinations and intrigue taking place in the halls of power."
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Stephen Coates)
