Putin’s key Kremlin aide quits

Bloomberg

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s longtime Kremlin aide Vladislav Surkov, who was responsible for handling separatist forces in Ukraine, quit over unspecified policy differences, said his longtime ally Alexei Chesnakov.
The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was no official decree on Surkov’s resignation and that there had been no change in policy.
The contradictory statements come at a time of new hopes for ending
the violence in eastern Ukraine, where Russia backs separatists in the Donbas and Luhansk regions. Putin and his
Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, have agreed to continue prisoner exchanges and the withdrawal of some troops.