The U.S. Senate approved on Saturday the candidacy of Michael McFaul, President Barack Obama's chief adviser on Russia, for the post of the U.S. ambassador to Moscow, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported.
Obama nominated McFaul, who is considered one of the architects of the "reset" in the Russian-U.S. relations, for the ambassador's post in September.
But a Senate vote on his confirmation was put on hold by Republican Senator Mark Kirk, who expressed concerns over U.S.-Russian cooperation on missile defense, which he said could see Moscow obtain classified information and share it with Iran.
Kirk lifted his hold on Obama’s nominee after the White House assured him in a letter that it would "not provide Russia with sensitive information about our missile defense systems that would in any way compromise our national security."
The Senate approved McFaul's nomination by a unanimous vote. The current U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Byerly, is expected to leave his post next week.
McFaul, 48, is a Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director, Russia and Eurasia Affairs for the White House National Security Staff. He speaks fluent Russian.
McFaul was born and raised in Montana. He received his B.A. in International Relations and Slavic Languages and his M.A. in Slavic and East European Studies from Stanford University in 1986.
McFaul, along with the acting chief of the Kremlin administration, Vladislav Surkov, is a co-chair of the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission’s Civil Society Working Group.
