Russia's Culture Minister Dmitry Livanov resigns

Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted the Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's proposal to appoint the head of the Presidential administration's department of public projects, Olga Vasilyeva, as the new Russian Minister of Education and Science. 

Her predecessor Dmitry Livanov was assigned the 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 the Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

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," Sputnik reports.