Putin appoints new "curator" of occupied Donbass

Russian President Vladimir Putin has replaced the head of the presidential office in charge of the so-called "people's republics" of Donbass, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Alexey Filatov was appointed by a new order instead of Oleg Govorun, - Radio Liberty reports.

It is reported that the new head of the department was previously engaged in interaction with the self-proclaimed South Ossetia. Last year, Filatov, as deputy head of the department, began to deal with the so-called "DNR" and "LNR".

Earlier, Kommersant reported the upcoming resignation of current head of this department Oleg Govorun, who is called one of the people within Vladislav Surkov's (assistant to the president of Russia) circle.

The report reminds that the Directorate for Cross-Border Cooperation of the Russian Federation is the former Directorate for Socio-Economic Cooperation with the CIS member states, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Putin reorganized it last year, having reduced its staff. However, the new administration, allegedly, continued to oversee separatists in the east of Ukraine.

Among the latest reports in the media and telegram channels close to the Kremlin about Russia's plans for the "DNR" and "LNR" are preparations for the distribution of Russian passports to population of the Donbass regions not controlled by Ukraine. Dmitry Peskov stated that he knew nothing about these plans, - the report said.