President Dmitry Medvedev hired one of the country’s most prominent investment bankers as an adviser on social issues such as pensions, state benefits and wages on Tuesday, local news agencies reported.

Medvedev signed a decree appointing Yevgeny Yuryev, the 39-year-old founder of Aton investment bank, as one of his 10 advisers, the Kremlin said.

Yuryev, who set up his Aton brokerage business at the age of 20 and then sold it in 2007 for $424 million, fills a Kremlin vacancy created last year when Mikhail Zurabov was appointed Russia’s ambassador to Ukraine.

(Reuters)