Footage from a Kremlin awards ceremony in Moscow has sharpened attention on Vladimir Putin and Alexei Dyumin after what was presented as a public rebuke during an event honouring Russia's Paralympic team following the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games. The moment matters less for any finger wag caught on camera than for who was standing there beside him, because Dyumin remains one of the few Kremlin figures regularly mentioned in speculation about who could one day follow Putin.
Dyumin is no ordinary courtier. He is a former Putin bodyguard who later served as Tula governor and was appointed Secretary of the State Council in May 2024, a move that immediately set off another round of succession chatter, even as analysts cautioned there was no clear evidence Putin was grooming him as a replacement. That distinction is worth keeping in view, because in the Kremlin, proximity to power often means influence, but not necessarily inheritance.
