MOSCOW, July 14. /TASS/. Chairman of the US Commission of Fine Arts Rodney Mims Cook Jr. could very well become the American ambassador to Russia, as he is well acquainted with the country and enjoys the trust of the Russian people, American producer and president of Studio Mao, Stephen Mao, told TASS in an interview.
"Rodney is very familiar with Russia as a country, he has done a lot for the country," he noted. "As you know, the ambassador position has been vacant in Russia since ambassador [Lynn] Tracy left two years ago. This is a very critical position for Russian-American negotiations, which is currently vacant." Cook "has the trust of [US] President Trump," Mao noted, and in his words, "he has the trust of the Russian people."
At the same time, the American producer recalled that in March of last year, Russian Ambassador to Washington Alexander Darchiev was appointed to his post. "I hope there will be an ambassador in Russia [from] the United States soon. It is a process because, obviously, ambassadors have to be approved officially. But, certainly, Rodney would be a great candidate for that position," the agency's interlocutor emphasized. "I think he should be seriously considered."
Rodney Mims Cook Jr. was born in 1956 in Atlanta and graduated from the engineering faculty of Washington and Lee University, a private liberal arts university in Virginia. He was appointed to the Commission of Fine Arts at the end of Trump's first term, but was dismissed under the Joe Biden administration and returned after Trump's return to the White House.
At this year's St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Cook headed the US delegation, which visited SPIEF for the first time in a long while. However, he had been to Russia before, giving lectures on architecture at the Kremlin Armory, Yasnaya Polyana, and the Arkhangelskoye estate, and participated in the restoration of the Resurrection Cathedral of the New Jerusalem Monastery as an independent expert.