Obama names Tefft as new US ambassador to Russia

President Barack Obama has said he is returning to service a career diplomat deeply experienced in eastern Europe to be the next US ambassador to Russia.
Obama's announcement yesterday that he was nominating John Tefft for the high-profile post comes during a crucial period in US-Russia relations, which have been severely tested over President Vladimir Putin's actions in neighboring Ukraine, among other issues.
The US Embassy in Moscow has been without an ambassador since February.
Senate confirmation is required for the post.
Tefft would bring his decades of experience in eastern European affairs to the post, having served most recently as the US ambassador to Ukraine in Obama's first term.

Immediately before that, Tefft was the US ambassador to Georgia during the administration of George W Bush.

Tefft has been the deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs at the State Department, an international affairs adviser at the National War College and the US ambassador to Lithuania during the Bush administration.
Tefft also was the deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Moscow, among his other foreign service assignments.
Since 2013, he has been executive director of the RAND Business Leaders Forum at the RAND Corp., a nonprofit that analyzes public policy.
The US ambassador's post in Russia has been vacant since earlier this year, when Michael McFaul stepped down after a turbulent two years in the Russian capital.

McFaul is the architect of Obama's effort to reset relations with Russia. But Obama's relationship with Putin has been anything but smooth.
The US and its European allies each have sanctioned Russian businesses and individuals, including some members of Putin's inner circle, after Russia occupied and annexed the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine earlier this year.