https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladislav_Surkov
Vladislav Yuryevich Surkov (Russian: Владислав Юрьевич Сурков; born 21 September 1964) is a Russian businessman and politician. He was First Deputy Chief of the Russian Presidential Administration from 1999 to 2011, during which time he was often viewed as the main ideologist of the Kremlin who proposed and implemented the concept of sovereign democracy in Russia. From December 2011 until May 2013, Surkov served as the Russian Federation's Deputy Prime Minister. After his resignation, Surkov returned to the Presidential Executive Office and became a personal adviser of Vladimir Putin on relationships with Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Ukraine. He was freed from this duty by presidential order in February 2020.
Surkov is perceived by many to be a key figure with much power and influence in the administration of Vladimir Putin. According to The Moscow Times, this perception is not dependent on the official title Surkov might hold at any one time in the Putin government. BBC documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis credits Surkov's blend of theater and politics with keeping Putin, and Putin's chosen successors, in power since 2000.
Journalists in Russia and abroad have speculated that Surkov writes under the pseudonym Nathan Dubovitsky, although the Kremlin denies it.
Surkov has married twice. His first marriage, to Yulia Petrovna Vishnevskaya (Russian: Юлия Петровна Вишневская) in 1987, ended in divorce in 1996. In his second marriage, Surkov married Natalya Dubovitskaya, his secretary when he was an executive at the Menatep bank, in a civil ceremony in 1998. Surkov has four children: Artem (Russian: Артём; born 15 October 1993), the biological child of Yulia he adopted during his first marriage; and Roman (Russian: Роман; born 2002), Maria (Russian: Мария; born 2004), and Timur (Russian: Тимур; born 2010), biological children of himself and Natalya.
Surkov has composed songs and written texts for the Russian rock-musician Vadim Samoylov, ex-member of the band Agata Kristi (Russian: Агата Кристи). He speaks English and is fond of poets of the Beat Generation such as Allen Ginsberg.
Vladislav Surkov: Russia's Putin dismisses secretive adviser
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51553732
Who is Vladislav Surkov?
As first deputy head of the Kremlin administration, Mr Surkov oversaw political parties in parliament and electoral campaigns that delivered victory for Mr Putin.
But his influence began to wane in 2011 when he was made a deputy prime minister.
In 2013, he was given the responsibility of overseeing Russia's ties with Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries.
Moscow annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula in 2014 and supported Russian-speaking separatists in Ukraine's east.
Vladislav Surkov
https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ACYBGNRKO4dMuvKuyOSdQ5cJY0djmNs6Vw:1582058134668&q=Vladislav+Surkov&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiZzYXp-dvnAhVKkMMKHU93AWIQsAR6BAgIEAE&biw=1366&bih=657
Putin Sacks Top Adviser and Ex-Ukraine Pointman Surkov
https://www.voanews.com/europe/putin-sacks-top-adviser-and-ex-ukraine-pointman-surkov
MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday sacked Vladislav Surkov, one of his chief advisers and the architect of Russia's Ukraine policy who was viewed among the country's most powerful men.
The dismissal of the 55-year-old Surkin was announced on the Kremlin website but there was no indication of what his new job would be.
In recent years, Surkov was in charge of the Kremlin's Ukraine policy and cultivated close ties with the separatists who have carved out "people's republics" in the ex-Soviet country's eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.
He was replaced earlier this month as the Kremlin's chief ideologue and pointman on relations with Ukraine and Moscow-backed separatists by Dmitry Kozak, a 61-year-old veteran official and a close ally of Putin.
As first deputy head of the Kremlin administration, Surkov helped transform Russian parliament into a rubber stamp, muzzle media and neuter the opposition.
The secretive strategist oversaw political parties in parliament and electoral campaigns that invariably handed victory to Putin.
Surkov saw his influence wane after he was moved to the government in a reshuffle in 2011 and served two years in the rank of deputy prime minister.
In 2013, he returned to the Kremlin where he served as Putin's advisor in charge of Russia's ties with Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries.
He found himself back in the spotlight when Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and supported Russian-speaking separatists in Ukraine's industrial east.
Separatists openly admitted that Surkov advised the leadership of the breakaway statelets.