On 12 August, President Vladimir Putin released Sergei Ivanov from his position as Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office and appointed him Special Presidential Representative for Environmental Protection, Ecology and Transport.

Sergei Ivanov is Chair of the Far Eastern Leopards Supervisory Board that was founded in 2011. Since 2013, Mr Ivanov has been on the Russian Geographical Society’s Board of Trustees. In 2012, he was instrumental in creating Land of the Leopard National Park, which covered the rare predator’s major habitat, and in amending the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation to envisage criminal liability for illegally trapping, keeping, transporting or selling rare wild animals. In 2016, Russia’s first eco-tunnel opened on the motorway that runs through the leopard habitat.

Measures aimed at protecting the Far Eastern leopard and restoring its population have already yielded results: the overall population of the rarest wild cat has increased from 30 to 80 species over the last five years.

During his meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Sergei Ivanov promised to work as efficiently, dynamically and in a constructive manner in his new position as he did in the previous one.