Vladislav Surkov

Vladislav Yuryevich Surkov (Russian: Владислав Юрьевич Сурков; born 21 September 1964) is a Russian politician and businessman. He served as First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia from 1999 to 2011, where he played a central role in shaping domestic political strategy. During this period, he was widely credited with formulating and promoting the concept of sovereign democracy. From December 2011 to May 2013, Surkov was Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, later returning to the Presidential Executive Office as a close aide to Vladimir Putin. Between 2013 and 2020, he was responsible for overseeing Russian policy toward Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Ukraine. He was dismissed from this role in February 2020. Surkov has been described as an influential political strategist and is sometimes referred to as a "grey cardinal" of Russian politics. He has also been linked to literary works published under the pseudonym Nathan Dubovitsky.