On February 28, 2020, in Moscow, de facto President of the Tskhinvali Region Anatoly Bibilov met with the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation Dmitry Kozak. 

Issues related to construction of backup power lines, modernization of Trans-Caucasian highway and financing of investment program were discussed at the meeting. Special attention was paid to the import of food products and vehicles from Russia to the Tskhinvali Region.

Russia's Deputy Minister of Economic Development Sergey Chebotarev and Head of the Directorate for Cross Border Cooperation at the Presidential Administration Aleksey Filatov also attended the meeting. Chebotarev and Filatov are curators to Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali Region.

This was the first meeting of senior officials of the Presidential Administration with de facto Leader of the Tskhinvali Region after Vladislav Surkov’s resignation, who was the curator to Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali Region. At this stage, the Presidential Administration has not officially confirmed who will substitute Surkov in direction of occupied regions of Georgia, however it seems Kozak is already coordinating this direction. Earlier, Kozak officially replaced Surkov for the direction of Ukrainian.