Surkov to remain Donbas overseer for Kremlin, war blogger reports

Longtime Russian presidential adviser Vladislav Surkov
will continue to handle the war in Donbas for the Kremlin, reported on his blog
on Feb. 13 Semion Pegov, a leading Russian war correspondent. Surkov’s reported
replacement, Russian Presidential Administration Deputy Head Dmitry Kozak, will
instead oversee economic, financial and trade matters with Kyiv, Pegov wrote.

“There is the view that the Presidential
Administration decided to finally divide the concepts of Ukraine and Donbas.
And that truly the Ukrainian tangent will be handled by Kozak, as was announced
recently by (presidential spokesman Dmitry) Peskov. Just how this will look,
strictly formally, is being discussed at the current moment,” Pegov wrote.
“This way, Donbas gains a special status in Russian political conjuncture. De
facto, it’s not Ukraine anymore. But it’s also not entirely domestic policy.
Though the distribution of Russian passports will integrate its human resource
potential in the Russian present more intensively, in one way or another,” he
wrote.  Meanwhile, Surkov’s military “project” – the Union of Donbas Volunteers
led by Aleksandr Boroday – will remain in place, he wrote.

Zenon Zawada: This report could very well be accurate considering Surkov was never
dismissed formally from his post as presidential aide. Surkov’s own adviser,
Aleksey Chesnakov, has depicted Kozak as
being interested in ending the war as a means of renewing economic growth. Indeed, Kozak was reportedly
the Russian negotiator in the two exchanges of war prisoners. In light of these
facts, it’s quite possible Russian President Putin will rely on both Surkov,
the inflexible hawk on Ukraine, and Kozak, the pragmatic business-oriented
official, to handle any negotiations on Donbas this year.