Dmitri N. Kozak had worked with President Vladimir V. Putin for three decades before quitting in September. His associates described his break with the Russian leader.
Dec. 18, 2025Updated 6:41 a.m. ET
On the second day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of President Vladimir V. Putin’s closest aides refused to follow his orders.
Mr. Putin had told the aide, Dmitri N. Kozak, to demand Ukraine’s surrender, according to three people close to Mr. Kozak. Mr. Kozak declined, insisting that he did not know what the Russian leader was trying to accomplish with his invasion. As the call grew heated, Mr. Kozak told Mr. Putin that he was ready to be arrested or shot for his refusal.
Only later did Mr. Kozak learn that Mr. Putin had put that call in 2022 on speakerphone, the people said, turning the senior officials in the president’s office into witnesses to a rare moment of insubordination.
Mr. Kozak was a lone voice of dissent in Mr. Putin’s inner circle, a small crack in his iron grip on power. With so few people willing to challenge him, Mr. Putin has exerted near-total control over Russia’s prosecution of the war. It’s partly why, almost four years later, the Russian leader is able to stick to his hard-line demands even as pressure mounts for a cease-fire.
Mr. Kozak, 67, resigned as a deputy chief of staff to Mr. Putin this September, a month after The New York Times reported on his private criticism of the war. In interviews since then, six Russians close to Mr. Kozak described the transformation of a 30-year Putin confidant into a locus of antiwar sentiment in the Russian elite. Most spoke on condition of anonymity, given the danger of retribution for discussing confidential Kremlin politics.
In making his disagreements with the president known within the ruling elite, Mr. Kozak is giving voice to quiet dissatisfaction felt by many in Moscow’s business and cultural class, and even by other government officials, the six confidants say. This year, that dismay has been exacerbated by Mr. Putin’s refusal to end the war even on the favorable terms being offered by President Trump.
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