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Putin Needs U.S. Ambassador Himself
Russia is replacing the ambassador to the United States. Yuri Ushakov, the RF ambassador to Washington since 1999, is back in Moscow and may soon be appointed a deputy to Vice Premier Sergei Sobyanin. Sobyanin is the chief of the government’s office and the plans are to create an independent foreign policy division to serve the cabinet and prime minister.
Russia is going to replace the U.S. Ambassador Yuri Ushakov. Ushakov, who has stood for the Kremlin in Washington since January of 1999, is in Moscow today deliberating on his new office in Russia. The sources say he will be a deputy to Sergei Sobyanin supervising foreign activities of the RF government. President Dmitry Medvedev inked the decree on termination of Ushakov’s authority in the United States but the document hasn’t been promulgated yet.
The appointment of Ushakov as Sobyanin’s deputy has been confirmed by two sources in the government and a source in the president’s office. The U.S. Department of State hasn’t been officially notified about the replacement of key diplomat.
Ushakov is expected to systematize foreign activities of the government. On the one hand, these issues are supervised by the RF Foreign Ministry and President Dmitry Medvedev. On the other hand, not the Foreign Ministry but the cabinet has been recently dealing with activities of intergovernmental commissions.
According to a source close to the U.S. Department of State, Ushakov’s appointment would mean transferring the foreign policy authority from the president to prime minister and relegating in step Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is known as an old rival of Ushakov. The bureaucrats clashed in 2004 for office of the RF foreign minister.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 30, 2008
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