Russian Official Under EU Sanctions Appointed as New Ambassador to the US

On Monday, August 21, Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, appointed Anatoly Antonov, the former Deputy Minister of Defense, as the new ambassador to the United States. Mr. Antonov, who has been one of the deputies in the Russian Foreign Ministry for the past year, is introduced as the new ambassador to the US while his name is on the list of individuals sanctioned by the European Union. He replaces Sergey Kislyak, who served as the Russian ambassador to the US for nearly a decade and whose term ended in July. Reuters reports that US officials are examining the roles of Russian officials, including Sergey Kislyak, in the case of Russia's potential interference in the US presidential elections. Following the outbreak of the civil war in Ukraine and Russia's support for the rebels in the east of the country, the European Union included Mr. Antonov's name, who was then the Deputy Minister of Defense, in a list of 19 individuals subject to sanctions in 2015. These sanctions include a ban on entry into the European Union and the seizure of their assets. Anatoly Antonov, who served as Deputy Minister of Defense for five years starting in 2011, has been accused by the European Union of playing an active role in sending Russian forces to Ukraine and threatening the territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine. The US has not yet reacted to the appointment of Anatoly Antonov as the new Russian ambassador and the issue of his sanctions by the European Union. Previously, in 2008, when Sergey Kislyak was appointed as the Russian ambassador to Washington, the US and Russia aimed to improve their cold relations, but issues such as NATO's attack on Libya, a Russian ally, in 2011 had the opposite effect. The two sides are also on opposing sides in the Syrian civil war, with Russia being one of the main supporters of Bashar al-Assad's regime, while the US supports some of the opposition groups against Assad. Relations between Moscow and Washington reached their worst level since the end of the Cold War in 2014 following the Ukraine crisis and the annexation of Crimea by Russia, and disputes related to Russia's potential interference in the US elections have intensified tensions between the two countries. While some observers expected that after Donald Trump came to power, the US would reduce its sanctions against Russia, Mr. Trump emphasized that reducing sanctions would require resolving issues in Syria and Ukraine. Additionally, the US Congress has recently imposed new sanctions against Russia, to which Moscow has responded by expelling a large number of American diplomats.