<p> 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.</p>.<p>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.</p>.<p>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.</p>.<p>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.</p>.<p>As the first deputy head of the Kremlin administration, Surkov helped transform Russian parliament into a rubber stamp, muzzle media and neuter the opposition.</p>.<p>The secretive strategist oversaw political parties in parliament and electoral campaigns that invariably handed victory to Putin.</p>.<p>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.</p>.<p>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.</p>.<p>He found himself back in the spotlight when Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and supported Russian-speaking separatists in Ukraine's industrial east.</p>.<p>Separatists openly admitted that Surkov advised the leadership of the breakaway statelets.</p>
<p> 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.</p>.<p>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.</p>.<p>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.</p>.<p>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.</p>.<p>As the first deputy head of the Kremlin administration, Surkov helped transform Russian parliament into a rubber stamp, muzzle media and neuter the opposition.</p>.<p>The secretive strategist oversaw political parties in parliament and electoral campaigns that invariably handed victory to Putin.</p>.<p>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.</p>.<p>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.</p>.<p>He found himself back in the spotlight when Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and supported Russian-speaking separatists in Ukraine's industrial east.</p>.<p>Separatists openly admitted that Surkov advised the leadership of the breakaway statelets.</p>