MOSCOW, February 1. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed an order to appoint Gennady Gatilov a permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations office and other international organizations in Geneva, and by another order he relieved Alexei Borodavkin of this position. The documents were published on Thursday at the official web portal of legal information.

"To appoint Gennady Gatilov Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Office and Other International Organizations in Geneva, the Swiss Confederation, and Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva concurrently," the order says.

By another order the Russian president relieved Gatilov of his duties as the Russian deputy foreign minister. Gatilov has held this position since 2011.

In late November 2017, the State Duma Committee for Foreign Affairs approved Gatilov’s candidacy as a permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva, and in December the Federation Council Committee for Foreign Affairs also backed his candidacy.

In September 2017, it emerged that Gatilov will replace Borodavkin as Russian permanent representative to the UN Office and other organizations in Geneva. Borodavkin has held this position since 2011 and he is expected to be appointed the Russian ambassador to Kazakhstan.