Sergei Ivanov, Russia's ex-defense minister once seen as Putin's likely successor, has died at 73

MOSCOW (AP) — Sergei Ivanov, a former Russian defense minister once seen as a possible successor to President Vladimir Putin, has died. He was 73.

The Kremlin said Ivanov died on Friday without providing the cause of death or giving other details. Putin sent his condolences to Ivanov's family.

In 2001, Putin appointed Ivanov, a fellow KGB veteran, to serve as his defense minister, the job he held until 2007, overseeing the second war in Chechnya that crushed the region’s separatist bid.

When Putin decided to step down due to term limits and shift into the prime minister's seat in 2008, Ivanov was widely viewed as his most likely successor. However, Putin picked another longtime associate, Dmitry Medvedev, to serve as his placeholder until reclaiming the presidency in 2012. Some observers argued that Putin ditched Ivanov's candidacy because he saw Ivanov as overly ambitious and feared that he could try to hold onto the presidential seat.

Ivanov remained at Putin's side as deputy prime minister from 2007-2011, and then served as the Kremlin chief of staff from 2011-2016.

In 2016, Ivanov was named a presidential envoy for environment protection and transport, a job that carried no political weight and was widely seen as a honorary retirement. He stepped down earlier this year.

Along with other Russian top officials, Ivanov has been targeted by the U.S. and the EU sanctions in response to Moscow's military action in Ukraine.

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Kremlin's Chief of Staff Sergei Ivanov attend a meeting of the V-Day celebrations organizing committee in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 17, 2015. (AP Photo/Sergei Ilnitsky, Pool, File)

FILE - Russian Premier Dmitry Medvedev, left, Deputy Premier Sergei Ivanov, center, and Russian President Vladimir Putin walk after a state-of-the nation address in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze, File)

FILE- Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, listens to his chief of staff Sergei Ivanov during a meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, on Monday, March 24, 2014.(Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

FILE - Sergei Ivanov, Russia's special representative for environment protection and transport, attends a Victory Day military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the Nazi defeat in World War II on Moscow's Red Square, Russia, Wednesday, June 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, Pool, File)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — For a few years at the turn of this century, Nashville was home to a remarkable carousel.

Described by its artist-creator Red Grooms as a sculpto-pictorama, the “horses” were 36 whimsical figures related to Tennessee. Legendary country musician Chet Atkins rode the neck of a guitar. Davy Crockett wrestled a bear. You could even ride a chigger, a summer mite that latches onto ankles causing an intense itch.

The Tennessee Fox Trot Carousel was magical but was perhaps in the wrong place at the wrong time, perched on the riverfront at the edge of downtown Nashville when the area was up-and-coming but not quite the tourist draw of today. When it could no longer support itself financially, the carousel was disassembled and given over to the care of the Tennessee State Museum, which placed it in a storage facility where it sits to this day.

Now, more than 20 years later, momentum is building for the carousel to ride again.

Tennessee State Museum Executive Director Ashley Howell says the question she most commonly hears from the public is: “What about the Red Grooms carousel?”

The museum was planning a grand new building when it took custody of the ride, but it didn’t create an area for the carousel due to a lack of funds, Howell said. The new museum opened in downtown Nashville in 2018 with a retrospective of Grooms’ work but no carousel.

In November, the museum put out feelers for private parties interested in “partnering with the Museum in the restoration, placement, and operation of the Red Grooms Fox Trot Carousel.”

Howell, who took the top job at the museum in 2017, said she had planned to turn her attention to the carousel sooner, but was hindered by twin disasters in 2020: A tornado clipped the new museum and destroyed a storage building then, just days later, the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down.

However, all the questions about the carousel's return underscore “how beloved this work of art is to the community,” she said.

“It was only on the riverfront for a short time, but it has sort of lived in memory much longer than it was in operation,” Howell said. “We're excited to think about next steps.”

Grooms, who was born in Nashville in 1937, left the city after high school and spent most of his career in New York.

His work is colorful and whimsical, and he often creates large installations that viewers can enter and touch.

One of his best known exhibits is Ruckus Manhattan, from 1976. The New York Times described it as “a walk‐in carnival reconstruction of Manhattan landmarks and the sometimes bizarre fauna that inhabit them,” including a subway car that was “a form of participation theater.”

Marina Pacini, who curated a Grooms exhibit for the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in 2016, said he is really a storyteller whose work is filled with “absolutely riveting” details.

“They operate on multiple levels, but you do not have to be an art expert in order to enjoy unpacking what’s going on in them,” she said, adding: “People adore his work.”

While selecting pieces for the exhibit, Pacini visited the carousel in storage. She said it was hard to choose from among them.

“The generosity of him making something like a carousel — that he put that much thought and effort into the individual characters and into how he defined them — and then to create them into something that you can actually climb on! I mean, most people go to museums and you’re not allowed to touch anything,” she said. “Here you are, you’re actually getting to climb onto a work of art. How much more fun could it possibly be?”

Grooms, who is 89 years old, did not respond to questions about the carousel.

Some of Grooms' biggest fans and collectors are in Nashville, so when his Manhattan gallery closed a few years ago, he moved his representation to David Lusk, who operates galleries in Nashville and Memphis.

An exhibition last year of drawings and ephemera from the making of the Fox Trot Carousel reminded people about the carousel, Lusk said.

He said the question remains as to “whether it's an artwork or whether it's meant for people to be straddling and riding it.”

If it has to be restored like an Old Master painting, then the cost is likely prohibitive. But if the goal is for it to be a working carousel, it need not be in pristine museum condition.

“He’s pretty assured that it is in good shape and ready to go again. So it’s just frustrating that it's not out there for people to enjoy,” Lusk said. “Red wants it used — looked at, used, loved.”

A figure of Eugene Lewis from the Fox Trot Carousel is seen in a state government storage facility Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

A figure of Andrew Jackson from the Fox Trot Carousel is seen in a state government storage facility Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

FILE - Artist Red Grooms poses in New York, July 16, 1998, with one of the figures for the Tennessee Fox Trot Carousel he has created for Nashville, his native town. (AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett, File)

A figure of Chet Atkins and other parts of the Fox Trot Carousel are seen in a state government storage facility Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

A figure of Mr. Fox Trot from the Fox Trot Carousel is seen in a state government storage facility Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)