MINSK. July 20 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has appointed Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Kravchenko Belarus's ambassador to the United States.
"Deputy Foreign Ministers Oleg Kravchenko and Andrei Dapkyunas have been appointed ambassadors to the U.S. and Austria, respectively," the BelTA state-run news agency said.
The decision of Minsk and Washington to restore their diplomatic representation at the level of ambassadors was announced during Lukashenko's meeting with U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale on September 17, 2019.
Following a 2008 diplomatic scandal, Minsk and Washington recalled their ambassadors in a reciprocal move and reduced the diplomatic missions' staff to a minimum. Subsequently, the level of the most senior diplomat in both countries' missions was reduced to charge d'affaires ad interim.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said earlier that Minsk had lifted restrictions on the number of U.S. diplomats present in Belarus.
In early May 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump officially nominated Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Julie Fisher for the post of U.S. ambassador in Minsk.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that Charge d'Affaires ad interim Jenifer Moore was completing her diplomatic tenure in the republic.
Kravchenko was born in Minsk in 1971. He graduated from the law department of Belarusian State University in 1994 and the post-graduate program of the Philosophy and Law Institute of the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences in 1998. He has a PhD in juridical science.
Kravchenko started his diplomatic career more than 25 years ago. He served as Minsk's charge d'affaires ad interim to the U.S. in 2008-2014, held the post of deputy head of the department and head of the U.S. and Canada unit at the Belarusian Foreign Ministry's America Department, and later head of the America Department in 2014-2017. He was appointed to the post of deputy foreign minister in January 2017.