MOSCOW, May 4. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed Denis Agafonov, head of the expert department of his administration, as the Russian sherpa in the Group of Twenty (G20) to represent the head of state in this organization, according to a corresponding presidential decree published on the official portal of legal information on Monday.

Agafonov succeeds Svetlana Lukash in this post, a long-term Russian sherpa in various international organizations. Lukash, who also serves as deputy head of the expert department, was appointed to this post in 2013, but in practice she had been in charge of the Russian Sherpa office since 2008.

Agafonov assumed the seat of the head of the expert department of the President of Russia in 2024. Prior to that, he worked in the Kremlin’s Department of Foreign Policy.