Sergey Kiriyenko, the ‘Viceroy of the Donbas’ who helped launch Putin’s career

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks to Presidential first deputy chief of staff Sergei Kiriyenko at a meeting of the Pobeda (Victory) Organising Committee in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 20, 2017. AP - Mikhail Klimentyev

He is a man of many names: “Kinder Surprise”, after the popular chocolate eggs given to children throughout Europe, “the little human computer”, “Nuke Surprise”, but Sergey Kiriyenko’s front-row seat during Vladimir Putin’s contested annexation of four Ukrainian regions on Friday inspired his latest nickname: “Viceroy of the Donbas”. Who is this one-time prime minister who put Putin on the path to the presidency by handing him the top job at Russia's intelligence agency, the FSB?

For some Russian media outlets, Kiriyenko’s seating on Friday said it all: Putin’s domestic-policy-czar-turned-annexation-engineer is going places, and is likely vying for Russia’s top job.