The governor of Ukraine's Odesa region, Mikheil Saakashvili, has announced that Russian politician Maria Gaidar will be his deputy.
Saakashvili said on July 17 that he had asked Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to grant Gaidar Ukrainian citizenship and to formally appoint her to the post.
Saakashvili added that Gaidar will be supervising social issues in the region.
Gaidar is the daughter of the late Yegor Gaidar, Russia’s reformist prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s.
She is a vocal critic of Yeltsin's successor, President Vladimir Putin.
Saakashvili, who served as president of Georgia in 2004-2013, has been leading Ukraine’s Odesa region since late May.
Poroshenko's government has appointed several foreigners to state posts after antigovernment protests toppled pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.
