Media: Putin’s aide Surkov responsible for LPR and DPR might resign
Aide to the President of the Russian Federation Vladislav Surkov, who is in charge of the Ukrainian direction and cooperation with the self-proclaimed Abkhazia and South Ossetia, may leave his post as a result of reshuffle in Putin’s administration, RBC news agency reports, citing several sources.
The sources provided different reasons for Surkov’s possible resignation. This may be due to the fact that "the strategy in the Ukrainian direction overall has reached a deadlock, the Minsk agreements are not being implemented, no breakthroughs in the foreseeable future are expected." A source close to the Kremlin adds that "In our lifetime, issues of the DPR and LPR cannot be solved; this will happen during the next generations."
According to RBC’s two sources close to the management working on the CIS issues, Surkov’s team had a conflict with the FSB, the Russian Federation’s principal security agency that is responsible for counterintelligence on the territory of the LPR (Luhansk People’s Republic) and DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic). The FSB, according to sources, supported the so-called head of the "MGB LPR" (so-called Ministry of State Security), Leonid Pasechnik in his conflict with the leader of LPR, Igor Plotnitsky. The head of the LPR, in turn, was supported by Surkov.
At the same time, according to other sources, Surkov himself is ready to leave his post and this has nothing to do with the state of Russian-Ukrainian relations.