The exodus of prominent Russians who are leaving their homeland does not stop.

With Anatoly Chubais, a high-ranking official has now submitted his resignation for the first time;

The media also published a photo purporting to show the longtime official, who most recently served as President Vladimir Putin's special representative for sustainable development, waiting at an ATM in Istanbul.

The news portal "RBK" reported, citing two acquaintances of the official, that Chubais had traveled to Istanbul with his wife.

He had not spoken publicly about the war.

However, he recently admitted on social media that his late companion, economic reformer Yegor Gaidar, "understood Russia's strategic risks better than I did and that I was wrong".

Frederick Smith

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.

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Chubais once called Russia's job to build a "liberal empire," while Gaidar warned that attempts to re-empire Russia were dangerous.

The news portal "Bloomberg" reported that Chubais' departure was related to the fact that he rejected the war against Ukraine.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Chubais resigned at his own request.

"Whether he left or not is his personal matter," said Peskow.

Among the tens of thousands of Russians who have left Russia because of the war and the hunt for "national traitors" declared by Putin are well-known personalities, according to several journalists and artists.

The 66-year-old economist Tuschbays, on the other hand, is a representative of the so-called system liberals.

He has been in the civil service since 1991, headed the presidential administration in the 1990s and is said to have hired an official he knew from the St. Petersburg city government at the time: Putin.

However, Chubais is hated by many Russians as one of the originators of the privatizations of the 1990s and has therefore long been the target of smear campaigns.

In 2005 he survived an assassination attempt.

Chubais would be an obvious target in the hunt for "national traitors" as one of Russia's least popular political officials.

Peskov said on Thursday that he did not understand why "so much time" was being devoted to Chubai's resignation.

"Every day" someone quits the presidential administration and someone new comes.

Chubais was also not a regular employee and did not receive a salary.

"The Kremlin knows nothing about Chubais leaving because of the military operation in Ukraine," said Peskov.

System liberals like Chubais were most recently influential under the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev (2008 to 2012).

Since then, her influence has shrunk considerably.

Some system liberals are even imprisoned.

Another of their representatives, the chairman of the international chess federation FIDE, Arkady Dvorkovich, had to give up the chairmanship of the Skolkovo Foundation last week, a fruit of the Medvedev years, which aims to promote innovation in Russia.

Dvorkovich, a former deputy prime minister, had previously used the word to criticize the war, earning him accusations of "national treason."