Putin Dismissed Surkov from the Post of His Assistant

By Vladimir Putin’s decree, Vladislav Surkov was removed from his post of Assistant to the President. Instead, the policy towards Ukraine will be overseen in the Kremlin by former Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak. On Tuesday, February 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree dismissing Vladislav Surkov from the post of Assistant to the President. The text of the document published by the Kremlin’s press service states that the decree comes into force from the day of its signing. The fact that Vladislav Surkov, who, among other things, was in charge of the Ukrainian direction in the Kremlin, left the civil service was announced as far back as in January by the director of the Center for Political Conjuncture Alexei Chesnakov, close to Surkov. In an interview with Interfax, he said that Putin’s assistant decided to leave because the “course in the Ukrainian direction has been changed.” On February 11, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that relations with Ukraine will now be overseen by former Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, who took the post of deputy head of Russia’s presidential administration. On the same day, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky replaced the head of his administration, dismissing Andriy Bogdan from this post. Andriy Yermak, a former assistant to Zelensky, was appointed as his successor.