OREANDA-NEWS. Donald Trump is inclined to appoint Stephen Bigan, the diplomat who made a great contribution to negotiations with the DPRK on nuclear disarmament, as the new ambassador to Russia. It's expected that he will replace John Huntsman, who leaves his post in October, according to an American news agency, citing a source familiar with the situation.

The final candidacy of Bigan hasn't been approved yet. It's expected that a decision will be made in the near future. Stephen Bigan was initially considered a specialist in Russia. At the University of Michigan, which he graduated in 1984, a native of Detroit studied Russian and political science. In 1992-1994, he headed the Moscow branch of the International Republican Institute (this organization was deemed undesirable in 2016, when John McCain was its leader in the United States). He later worked at Ford Motor and traveled to Russia on a Ford-Sollers joint venture.

The media indicates that the move of Bigan to Moscow will be a serious blow to US negotiations with the DPRK, since it was this diplomat who was preparing Trump's meeting with Kim Jong-un in Hanoi in February, and later sought to resume contacts between the leaders of the two countries. Earlier, the American newspaper reported that among the possible successors of Huntsman was called the current US ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell. However, the latter, according to the publication, didn't feel like moving to Russia.

The fact that John Huntsman appealed to Trump with a request to accept his resignation and relieve him of the post of US ambassador to Russia, it became known on August 6. In his letter to the American leader, the diplomat noted that serving him as an ambassador was an honor in such a “historically difficult period” in relations between the two countries. He asked for a replacement by October 3.