MOSCOW, November 1 (RIA Novosti) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed deputy foreign chief Mikhail Bogdanov as the country's new special representative to Africa and the Middle East, the Kremlin press service said Saturday.
The press service said Putin had ordered to "put Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Leonidovich Bogdanov in charge of the Russian President's special representative office to the Middle East and African Countries," the message said.
The same decree has relieved Mikhail Margelov of his duties in this capacity. He used to head a Senate committee for foreign affairs. In summer, Margelov announced he was going to step down as a lawmaker, with media reports claiming the senator was offered a job of vice president with Russia's largest oil pipeline company Transneft.
Mikhail Bogdanov has been serving as a deputy of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov since 2001. In 2012, he was appointed as Special Representative for the Middle East under then President Dmitry Medvedev.
