WASHINGTON, July 30. /ITAR-TASS/. The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has unanimously approved the nomination of John Tefft as the new ambassador to Russia.

Tefft, a career diplomat and former ambassador to Ukraine, Georgia and Lithuania, was nominated by President Barack Obama on July 10.

The committee said on Tuesday that the full Senate should approve Tefft's nomination by August 1 when the Congress leaves for a five-week recess.