MOSCOW, May 11. /TASS/. Marja Liivala will become Finland’s new ambassador to Russia, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Second European Department Sergey Belyaev said in an interview with TASS.

"The Finnish President’s administration has published his decision to appoint Marja Liivala as the ambassador of Finland to Russia beginning on September 1. Such a decision could have been taken only after Russia’s agrement to such an appointment," the diplomat said.

According to Belyaev, Liivala is an "experienced and highly professional diplomat." "She has repeatedly worked at the Finnish diplomatic mission in Moscow, actively promoting the development of mutually beneficial Russia-Finland relations," he said.

However, he specified that the same should be hardly expected of her nowadays, given the change in Finland’s policy course with regard to Russia.