MOSCOW \u2014 A career Russian diplomat, who gained the reputation of a hawk during his earlier tenure at the Defense Ministry, was named the new ambassador to the United States on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 62-year old Anatoly Antonov was appointed to the job by President Vladimir Putin\u2019s order, according to the Kremlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Antonov takes the job at a time when U.S.-Russia relations are badly strained following the approval of a new wave of U.S. sanctions against Moscow and the Kremlin\u2019s decision to sharply cut the U.S. diplomatic personnel in Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He succeeds Sergei Kislyak, who found himself in the center of controversy amid claims of Russia\u2019s interference in the U.S. presidential vote. Kislyak\u2019s contacts with members of Trump\u2019s team have been part of congressional and FBI investigations into possible collusion between Trump campaign and Russia. Russia has denied any interference in the U.S. election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Antonov joined the Foreign Ministry in 1978 and gradually rose through the ranks to take the job of the chief of the ministry\u2019s security and disarmament department in 2004. As part of his job, he led negotiations on various international agreements, including the 2010 New START nuclear arms reduction treaty signed by the United States and Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2011, Antonov left the Foreign Ministry to become a deputy defense minister in charge of international ties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The job raised Antonov\u2019s profile as he regularly delivered the Russian military\u2019s statement to international media and foreign military attaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Russia-West relations sank to post-Cold War lows over the Ukrainian crisis and the war in Syria, Antonov\u2019s visibility earned him a hawkish reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like other senior Russian officials, Antonov minced no words amid the tensions over Moscow\u2019s annexation of Crimea and support for pro-Russia insurgents in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Antonov accused the West of engineering the ouster of Ukraine\u2019s former Russia-leaning president in February 2014 as part of efforts to \u201ccontain\u201d Russia and waging what he described as an \u201cinformation war\u201d against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also claimed that the West has fueled the Ukrainian crisis in order to justify NATO\u2019s existence and bolster military budgets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The European Union and Canada have put Antonov on their lists of Russian officials sanctioned for their role in the Ukrainian crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Antonov also served as the Russian military\u2019s public face on Syria, where Moscow has waged an air campaign in support of President Bashar Assad\u2019s army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Antonov\u2019s stint at the Defense Ministry ended in 2016 and he returned to the Foreign Ministry, taking the post of a deputy minister. He has largely stayed out of the public eye since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In May, when he met with lawmakers who considered his candidacy for the ambassador\u2019s job, Antonov was quoted as saying that Moscow and Washington should normalize ties and engage in constructive cooperation. He said the U.S. and Russia must pool efforts in the fight against terrorism and work together to strengthen nuclear non-proliferation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A career Russian diplomat, who gained the reputation of a hawk during his earlier tenure at the Defense Ministry, was named the new ambassador to the United States on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":98512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":62,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,12,26,62],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1290],"class_list":["post-61946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"DB5TU3GOXZGENFLMFNPRDUOKWY","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2017\/08\/21\/putin-appoints-new-russian-ambassador-to-us\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n