Surkov's dismissal and a pipeline dispute on 18 February 2020
A look back at the removal of the Kremlin adviser who handled Ukraine policy, and the oil row between Minsk and Moscow that preceded it.
Who was running the Kremlin's Ukraine policy, and what happened when he was removed? On 18 February 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a presidential order dismissing senior adviser Vladislav Surkov.
Surkov had been in charge of the Kremlin's policy on the Ukrainian crisis and of its relations with the separatist "people's republics" in the Donbass. His dismissal therefore touched directly on the file that mattered most to Kyiv.
A separate strain on Moscow's ties
Four days earlier, on 14 February 2020, relations between Belarus and Russia had come under pressure of a different kind. Belarus threatened to take oil from the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian crude to central Europe across its territory, if Russia did not supply the volumes it required.
Russian oil supplies to Belarus had not been agreed for 2020. Shipments had dwindled to 500,000 tonnes, down from a planned 2 million tonnes.
The two items were separate, but both were reported in the days around 18 February 2020.
