WASHINGTON, Sept 21, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - US President Joe Biden nominated
veteran diplomat Lynne Tracy Tuesday to serve as ambassador to Russia, after
the retirement of current envoy John Sullivan.

Formerly the number two diplomat in the US mission in Russia, Tracy is
currently the US ambassador to Armenia, and her appointment to the Moscow
post is contingent on approval by the US Senate.

She majored in Russian studies at the University of Georgia and earned a law
degree at the University of Akron, Ohio in 1994.

After joining the State Department she has served in missions in Eastern
Europe and Central Asia, including Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and
Kazakhstan.

She also served as the top US diplomat in Peshawar, Pakistan from 2006 to
2009 where she survived an attack by gunmen on her official car.

From 2014 to 2017 Tracy was deputy chief of mission in Moscow.

Sullivan, 62, left Russia in early September after less than three years
presiding over a mission stripped down staff-wise by tit-for-tat expulsions
and then under more pressure following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in
February.

Sullivan has already departed Moscow; he left suddenly at the beginning of
September to tend to his wife, who was suffering from cancer, according to
Politico.

His wife, attorney Grace Rodriguez, died on September 5, Politico reported.