Putin names veteran diplomat as new envoy to US amid warming ties

Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed Mr. Alexander Darchiev, a veteran diplomat known in the past for public denunciations of the West, as ambassador to the US on March 6 to lead a rapprochement that has stunned Ukraine and European countries.

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MOSCOW -

The Foreign Ministry said last week that Washington had given it the green light at a meeting between Russian and US officials in Turkey to appoint Mr. Darchiev, who now serves as head of the Foreign Ministry's North America department.

That six-hour meeting in Istanbul on Feb. 27, when the delegations worked to try to restore normal function of their embassies after years of tit-for-tat expulsions, was the latest sign of a thaw between the two countries.