Ukrainian president grants citizenship to daughter of ex-Russian PM nominated to official post

Maria Gaidar, the daughter of Russia's 1990s reformist prime minister Yegor Gaidar, shows her Ukrainian passport after it was handed to her by Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, right, in Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015. Gaidar's appointment as deputy governor of Odessa, now led by former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, has been painted as a betrayal in Russia. (AP Photo/Mykhailo Markiv, Pool) (The Associated Press)

Maria Gaidar, the daughter of Russia's 1990s reformist prime minister Yegor Gaidar, receives a Ukrainian passport from Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, right, in Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015. Gaidar's appointment as deputy governor of Odessa, now led by former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, has been painted as a betrayal in Russia. (AP Photo/Mykhailo Markiv, Pool) (The Associated Press)

KIEV, Ukraine – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has granted Ukrainian citizenship to a Russian opposition figure nominated to a regional government job.

Maria Gaidar, the daughter of Russia's first post-Soviet prime minister, has been named a deputy governor of the Odessa region by Gov. Mikhail Saakashvili, a former Georgian president.

The appointment has caused uproar in Russia, where some accused Gaidar of betraying her homeland. She has also been criticized by some in Ukraine for hesitating to condemn Russia's annexation of Crimea and the insurgency in the east.

Gaidar said she would focus on improving the living conditions of the hundreds of thousands of refugees from eastern Ukraine who have poured into Odessa.

Her father, Yegor Gaidar, who died in 2009, orchestrated crucial economic reforms after the collapse of the Soviet Union.