The Federation Council’s (Russian Senate) foreign
affairs commission has chosen former Culture minister Alexander Avdeev
as Russian Ambassador to the Vatican and the Order of Malta, Russian
government daily newspaper Rossiskaia Gazeta reported today.
The decree of appointment must now be signed by
Russian President Vladimir Putin. Avdeev, 66, is an experienced diplomat
who worked at the Russian Embassy in Paris during the Soviet era and
returned to France as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of
the Russian Federation to the French Republic between 2002 and 2008.
He
has also held the post of First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.