Former Governor of Utah Jon Huntsman was President Donald Trump's pick for U.S. ambassador to Russia, local media reported on Wednesday.
Huntsman, a moderate Republican who served as ambassador to Singapore in early 1990s and to China from 2009 to 2011, had already accepted Trump's offer, according to U.S. TV networks including CNN, ABC News, and NBC News.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Huntsman would take on the diplomatic post of increasing importance to a country whose relationship with the United States has sunk to new lows in recent years after the Ukrainian crisis.
The reported nomination also came when it was revealed that several senior administration officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, senior White House adviser Jared Kushner and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, met or made contacts last year with Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak.
The U.S. administration under former President Barack Obama last year claimed that Russia meddled with the U.S. presidential election in Trump's favor, an accusation strongly denied by Moscow.
