Jon Huntsman left Moscow largely unscathed after two years in the job as U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy to Moscow. His presumed successor might not be so lucky.
Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan is expected to be nominated to replace Huntsman in the coming weeks. If Sullivan is confirmed in the Senate, he’ll face an environment in which relations with Washington have sunk to an all-time low amid disagreements over Moscow’s authoritarian bent and accusations of election meddling. And he’ll have to navigate mixed signals between Trump’s warm words for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his administration and Congress’s more hawkish stance.
