Head of the Directorate for Cross-Border Cooperation of the Russian Federation Oleg Govorun resigns. According to the media of Russia, sources close to the Kremlin state that he "resigns from Kremlin due to family circumstances. The Directorate another employee will occupy his position".

In recent years Govorun was the curator of Ukraine, Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali Region. According to one of the sources, Govurun "has long wanted to leave. He was tired, and even last year wanted to quit the job." According to another source, the Kremlin "had claims to Govorun in direction of Ukraine". According to a source, Govorun might continue his work in commercial structures.

During various years Govorun occupied positions of the Head of the Directorate for Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, President Representative in Central Federal District, Minister of Regional Development. He was the curator in Kremlin of Abkhazia and Tkhinvali Region since 2013 (read more about Govorun’s relations with Abkhazia and Tkhinvali Regiorn here). As considered Govorun is close friend of Vladislav Surkov, Assistant to the President and the curator in Kremlin of the Ukraine and occupied regions of Georgia.

Once Govorun resigns, his co-worker Aleksey Filatov will carry out the duties of the Head of the Directorate, who for years occupied position of the Chief Consultant at the Directorate and was heading the relations with Tkhinvali Region. From 2018, Filatov in the rank of the Deputy Head of the Directorate, was the curator of Donetski and Luganski so called Republics. Govorun’s second Deputy Denis Travin supervises economic relations issues with Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region, and Vladimir Vladimirov, the head of the Directorate department, supervises political relations issues.

Cross Border Cooperation Division was established in 2018. On October 2, 2018, the President of the Russian Federation signed a Directive on the establishment of “the Directorate for Cross-Border Cooperation of the President of the Russian Federation“. According to the Directive, the Directorate replaced the former Directorate for Social-Economic Cooperation with CIS States and the Republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The establishment of the new Directorate was followed by the reduction of the number of employees. One of the main direction of the Directorate activities is separatists curatorship in the Eastern part of Ukraine.