(NewsGlobal.com)- U.S. President Joe Biden appointed U.S. Lynn Tracy, the ambassador to Armenia, to take up the same position in Russia as the conflict in Ukraine continues.
Tracy formerly held the positions of deputy chief of mission at the American embassy in Moscow and senior adviser for Russia in the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. She has also worked in Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan.
She was appointed when Trump’s pick John Sullivan, who Biden had retained, left his position. Elizabeth Rood, Deputy Chief of Mission in Moscow, occupied the position in the meantime.
Despite a Ukrainian counterattack, Russia is still waging war in Ukraine and intends to formally annex captured territory at the time of Tracy’s nomination. Her task will be made more difficult by ongoing U.S. sanctions against Moscow.
Russia still has to sign off on the Biden administration’s pick.
Such approval is typically routine, but at a time when relations between the United States and Russia are particularly tense due to the conflict in Ukraine, the detention of Americans in Russia, allegations of Russian interference in the U.S. and other elections, and an escalating dispute over the staffing of the embassies in Washington and Moscow, it cannot be assumed that Russia will accept President Joe Biden’s choice for ambassador.
The ambassador’s appointment occurs when many American experts on Russia who may have applied for the position in Moscow have been barred from entering the country. Russia was notified of the administration’s choice of Tracy’s many weeks ago, but, according to the officials, it has not yet provided its formal agreement, or “agreement,” as it is known in diplomatic jargon.
Speaking Russian, Tracy formerly worked as the deputy chief of mission at the American Embassy in Moscow and as a senior adviser for Russian issues in the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. Russian embassy. She also held several positions throughout South and Central Asia.
John Sullivan, the last American ambassador to Moscow, left earlier this month. While his departure had been anticipated this fall, it was hastened by the declining health of his wife, who passed away one day after he returned.
