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Ambassador to Russia Is Confirmed

The Senate confirmed John F. Tefft as the United States' ambassador to Russia on Thursday night.Credit...Win Mcnamee/Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Before leaving on its recess, the Senate confirmed John F. Tefft as the United States’ ambassador to Russia, filling a post that had been vacant since February, when a frayed relationship between the two countries began to deteriorate further over the separatist uprising in Ukraine.

Mr. Tefft, a career diplomat who had been the United States ambassador to Ukraine, Georgia and Lithuania, will arrive in Moscow as the Obama administration struggles to confront the Kremlin as fighting in eastern Ukraine worsens and grows in complexity after the downing of a passenger jet.

The administration faces “some of the most challenging times in the relations between the U.S. and Russia since the end of the Cold War,” Mr. Tefft said in July during testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The previous ambassador, Michael A. McFaul, resigned in February, ending a sometimes stormy two-year tenure that began with accusations by the Russian news media that he was sent to help stir up widespread protests against President Vladamir V. Putin at the end of 2011.

The White House formally nominated Mr. Tefft at the beginning of July, and his path toward Senate confirmation has moved more quickly than many other State Department nominations, which have been slowed by a contentious political climate in the Senate. While the Senate has been approving several nominees a week to countries the administration considers a priority, like Iraq or Honduras, some diplomats waiting to go elsewhere have languished for more than a year without confirmation votes.

Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, asked for unanimous consent to approve Mr. Tefft’s nomination around 9:30 p.m. on Thursday. Senator Michael B. Enzi, Republican of Wyoming, objected, citing Republican anger over a filibuster-rules change made by Democrats last November. “The other side broke the rules in order to change the rules,” he said. But about 90 minutes later, Senator Mark Pryor, Democrat of Arkansas, asked the Senate again to approve Mr. Tefft’s nomination using unanimous consent. There were no objections, and Mr. Tefft’s nomination was approved.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 7 of the New York edition with the headline: Ambassador to Russia Is Confirmed. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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