BELBEK AIRPORT (Sputnik) – Putin accepted the prime minister’s proposal to appoint Olga Vasilyeva as the new Minister of Education and Science. Her predecessor Dmitry Livanov was assigned special envoy for trade and economic relations with Ukraine.
"The development of trade and economic relations [with Ukraine] should be in the permanent field of our attention," Putin said during a working meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on arrival to Crimea.
Noting Livanov’s "purely civilian" credentials with extensive public sector experience, Putin noted that his "personal business acumen will help in building and reviving economic relations with our neighboring country, which is important to us."