There have been a few comings and goings in the Russian administration today, some of them pertaining to Ukraine (from RFE/RL's news desk):
Putin Reshuffles Regional Heads, Russia’s Top Customs Official Dismissed
MOSCOW -- Russia's top customs official was dismissed on July 28 alongside a reshuffle in which President Vladimir Putin appointed several new regional governors and sacked his ambassador to Ukraine.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev accepted the resignation of Federal Customs Service chief Andrei Belyaninov, whose home was searched this week as part of an investigation into alcohol smuggling. Medvedev appointed Vladimir Bulavin, until now the Kremlin’s envoy to the Northwestern Federal District of Russia, as his replacement.
Putin replaced the governors of Kirov Oblast, Kaliningrad Oblast, Yaroslavl Oblast, and Sevastopol, a port city in Russian-annexed Crimea, and appointed new presidential envoys in the Northwestern, North Caucasus, and Siberian federal districts.
Putin also fired Mikhail Zurabov, Russia's ambassador to Ukraine.
He dismissed Nikita Belykh, the liberal governor of Kirov Oblast who was arrested in June on suspicion of taking a bribe and denies any wrongdoing.
The shake-up comes ahead of parliamentary elections in September.
With reporting by RIA-Novosti, slon.ru, and TASS
VOA brings us some more reaction to Trump's apparent openness to considering the recognition of Crimea as Russian and the lifting of U.S. sanctions (among other things):
Former U.S. NATO Envoy Says Trump Remarks 'Reckless And Outrageous'
Former U.S. Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said that remarks by U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump suggesting Russia should find missing e-mails belonging to his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton were "reckless and outrageous." In an interview with VOA on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention on July 27, the former ambassador to NATO in the George W. Bush administration called into question other Trump positions on Russia.
With news of the dismissal of Russia's ambassador to Kyiv, Mikhail Zubarov, as well as a top customs official Andrei Baluyaninov, this is not a good day for senior-ranking civil servants: