President Vladimir V. Putin on

Pre­si­dent Vla­di­mir V. Putin on Mon­day abruptly redu­ced the respon­s­i­bi­lities of a senior advi­ser who last week issued a swe­e­ping cri­ti­cism of the Kremlin’s lea­dership and expressed deep mis­gi­vings about the direc­tion in which Rus­sia was hea­ded. In a pre­si­den­tial decree released wit­hout furt­her com­ment, Mr. Putin relie­ved the advi­ser, Andrei N. Illa­rionov, of his duties as Russia’s envoy to the Group of 8, com­pri­sing the world’s major indu­stria­lized nations and Rus­sia.
NYT