US Appoints New Ambassador to Russia

On Wednesday, the US Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s nominee, Lynne Tracy to be ambassador to Russia.

That came after hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was about to give a rare wartime address to a joint meeting of Congress. 

Tracy, a career diplomat and current ambassador to Armenia, will be the first woman to serve as US ambassador to Russia. 

The date she will assume her work was not immediately settled, as Russia must agree to accept.

“The United States needs an ambassador to represent us in Moscow,” Senator Bob Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said, pointing out that it was the 300th day of the Russian war on Ukraine as he urged support for Tracy.

The United States has been sending a steady supply of weapons and economic assistance to Ukraine, as it fights Russia.

Biden announced Tracy’s nomination in September, weeks after the departure of John Sullivan, who had been appointed by former President Donald Trump and was ambassador as Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine plunged relations to depths not seen since the Cold War.

A Russian speaker, Tracy served as deputy chief of mission in Moscow from 2014 to 2017.

Russia last week questioned Tracy’s suitability, suggesting she might feel more at home at a hardline think tank. 

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said remarks by Tracy in the media and to the foreign relations committee showed that she saw tighter sanctions against Moscow as the way forward in bilateral relations. 

According to Zakharova, Tracy had also noted the need for contacts with the opposition and civil society.