MOSCOW, October 10. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov from his post in a decree on Thursday.

On October 5, the Russian Embassy in the United States told TASS that Antonov had concluded his tenure in Washington. The diplomat returned to Moscow on the next day.

Earlier, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS that the next ambassador to Washington would be chosen in due time, and that the outcome of the upcoming US presidential election would have no bearing on this decision. The Russian presidential spokesman stressed that diplomatic relations with Washington had not been downgraded.

Antonov, 69, has served as Russia’s Ambassador to the US since 2017. He headed the embassy during the most turbulent period in the history of Moscow-Washington relations. The past few years have seen quite an unprecedented worsening of bilateral ties which Russia blames on the United States. At that, Washington has imposed restrictions on Russian diplomats working in the US. In 2017, it closed Russia’s Consulate General in San Francisco, California, and ordered the closure of the Russian diplomatic mission in Seattle, Washington, in 2018.