By Andrew Osborn

(Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed Alexei Dyumin, his former bodyguard, as secretary of the advisory State Council on Wednesday, a step that fuelled speculation about Dyumin’s presidential potential.

Putin was re-elected for another six-year term in March and made Dyumin, 51, an aide overseeing the defence industry in May, bringing him to Moscow and closer to the centre of power.

A decree signed by Putin appointing Dyumin to the State Council was published on the Kremlin’s website on Wednesday. It gave no further details of his new role.

“Russia’s elite is abuzz with the appointment of Dyumin as secretary of the State Council,” Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser and Putin supporter, said on Telegram.

“This is seen as confirmation that Dyumin is the future president of Russia, Putin’s choice,” Markov said, adding that this was something that had long been rumoured.

There is no public debate or reliable information about who might eventually succeed Putin, who is 71 and is expected to rule for years, but his appointments are scrutinised for signs of whether he is lining up a potential candidate to one day take over from him.

Being publicly identified as a potential successor carries certain risks attached to being seen as a challenger. But Dyumin’s name, among others, has long been the subject of speculation among Russia’s political elite.

Asked about Dyumin’s appointment, the Kremlin said it was part of a rotation – he is taking over the role from Igor Levitin, 72 – and said he would look at how the State Council would function. Putin chairs the council and there has long been speculation that it could take on more importance.

Under changes championed by Putin in 2020, the role of the State Council, grouping the heads of Russia’s regions, was enshrined in the constitution for the first time. Political analysts saw this as paving the way for it eventually to become a more powerful force.

SANCTIONED ‘HERO OF RUSSIA’

Dyumin was born in Kursk in western Russia in 1972 and is married with a son. Despite various state television appearances over the years, he is not a household name among Russians outside the region he used to govern, but is well known in political circles, the military and the intelligence services.

Dyumin told the Kommersant newspaper in 2016 how, as one of Putin’s bodyguards, he once used his pistol to scare off a bear from one of the president’s mountain residences while the Russian leader was resting.

A recipient of Russia’s highest Hero of Russia state award, Dyumin entered Russia’s Federal Guards Service, which ensures the security of the Kremlin elite, in 1995 and guarded Putin during his first and second terms.

“I was part of a group of officers which ensured the security of the president everywhere – in Russia and abroad,” Dyumin said.

“Every morning began with a report to the president on operational reports. You must have information on the regions, on emergency situations. Sometimes I had to give instructions to a minister, set a task for the head of a region.”

Dyumin, who has played ice hockey with Putin, was deputy head of the GRU military intelligence service when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. He later served as a deputy defence minister and then as governor of Tula, a region which plays a big role in Russia’s military-industrial complex.

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Dyumin in 2018, saying he had headed Special Operations Forces which “played a key role in Russia’s purported annexation of Crimea.”

He also appears on a British sanctions list which says he launched a drone training school in 2022 for operatives undertaking missions in Ukraine.

“Accordingly, there are reasonable grounds to suspect that Dyumin has been involved and continues to be involved with destabilising Ukraine or undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty or independence of Ukraine,” the UK Treasury said.

(Editing by Timothy Heritage)