Russia’s President Vladimir Putin appointed Vladislav Surkov on September 21 as his aide to oversee Moscow’s relations with Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Surkov replaced Tatyana Golikova, who was advising the Russian President on social-economic relations with and aid to Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Surkov, once an influential figure in the Kremlin, was deputy chief of staff president’s administration in 1999-2011 and then served as Deputy Prime Minister till May, 2013.