Kommersant: Deputy Foreign Minister may become Russia's ambassador to the United States

Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Antonov is a key candidate for the post of Russian ambassador to the United States, Kommersant reports, citing 4 government sources. Antonov will replace Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, who has held this post since July 2008.

As Kommersant reported in January, his candidacy for the post of ambassador was considered in the fall of 2016, when the Kremlin believed that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton would win the presidential election in America. Antonov himself, according to the newspaper, is considered a hardliner against Western countries.

Anatoly Antonov graduated from MGIMO and since 1978 has been working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in various positions in the central office and abroad. From 2004 to 2011, he headed the Department for Security and Disarmament Affairs.

He was the head of a number of Russian government delegations, including those at negotiations with the G8 countries; under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons; on the review of the operation of the conventions on "inhumane" weapons, on the prohibition of chemical weapons, on the prohibition of biological weapons; on multilateral export control mechanisms. He led a delegation at negotiations with the United States on a new Strategic Arms Forces Treaty. He was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense in February 2011.