U.S. President Barack Obama is planning to appoint Michael McFaul, a top national security aide at the White House, an ambassador to Russia, New York Times said on Sunday.
McFaul, 47, is known as an “architect” of Russian-U.S. reset policy. Being a Rhodes scholar, he was the first who traveled to the Soviet Union in early 80s. He is also the author or several books on Russia, including Between Dictatorship and Democracy: Russian Post-Communist Political Reform
and U.S. Policy Toward Russia After the Cold War.
“Mike, as the guy who really helped the president establish the reset, is the perfect person to go to Moscow to make sure there’s no lapse in momentum in the relationship,” a source in White House told NY Times on conditions of anonymity.
The source also told the paper that Obama had informed the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev about his choice during their meeting at the G8 summit in Deauville.
The U.S. Department of State refused to comment on the publication, saying they are not obliged to give any comments before the official announcement.
A Kremlin source dismissed the information that Medvedev had been informed about the possible McFaul’s ambassadorial appointment.
“During the official part of the talks there had not been such information,” the source said, adding that Kremlin however is positive over McFaul’s candidacy.
NEW YORK, May 29 (RIA Novosti)