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Replacement of envoy not to impact Russia-US relations - lawmaker

Replacement of the US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul will not impact Russian-US relations, Russian lawmaker said Wednesday

Alexei Pushkov Mitya Aleshkovsky

Alexei Pushkov

© Mitya Aleshkovsky

MOSCOW, February 05. /ITAR-TASS/. Replacement of the US ambassador to Russia will not impact Russian-US relations, a Russian lawmaker said on Wednesday in comments on early resignation of Michael McFaul.

"The replacement will hardly influence Russian-American relations," head of the committee for international affairs under the State Duma lower house of Russia's parliament Alexei Pushkov told a news conference, noting that "the ambassador is a vehicle of this or that policy worked out in Moscow or Washington."

Pushkov drew attention to the ambassador's workstyle. He believes that an envoy should foremost harmonize relations with government bodies of the country where he has been sent with his mission. "I believe that the ambassador's task is not to be an envoy for the opposition, but an envoy for the state. It is the trap McFaul got into as he tried to combine these two formats," the lawmaker said.

U.S. President Barack Obama appointed McFaul as US ambassador to Russia in September 2011. McFaul was Obama's aide for national security issues since 2009 and director of the Russian and Eurasian affairs department under the National Security Council.

On Wednesday, the US ambassador announced that he was stepping down due to family circumstances. He confirmed that he would resign after the end of the winter Olympic Games in Sochi. US Department of State officials denied the speculation that McFaul was quitting because of Washington's displeasure at his performance.

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