ArmInfo.No problem in that the new U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Kristina A. Kvien was U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, political scientist Suren Sargsyan wrote in a Facebook post.
"Many may see a link between the new ambassador's appointment with her work in Ukraine, but I do not see. The former U.S. ambassador to Armenia was later appointed as a career diplomat in Ukraine. The incumbent Ambassador Lynne Tracy worked in Pakistan. I do not think it is a basis for conspiracy theories," he wrote.
From private talks Mr Sargsyan knows that Ms Kvien is a well-trained career diplomat, which cannot be said of Armenia's ambassador to the United States. Ms Kristina A. Kvien worked at the U.S. Department of State, Security Council and in a number of countries.
"The new ambassador is one of the diplomats of the post-Cold War period. She has excellent knowledge of the region and its history. Ms Kvien was born in Fresno, California, where many Armenians are living. She received serious military education at Occidental College, attended by Barack Obama. She is most likely to arrive in Yerevan this September or October, after the U.S. Senate approves her candidacy," he wrote.
U.S. President Joe Biden has nominated Kristina A. Kvien for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Armenia, the White House reports.
Kristina A. Kvien, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, serves as Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. Embassy Kyiv. She was previously Charg, d'Affaires ad interim from 2020-2022.
Prior to that, Kvien served as Minister-Counselor for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, France and as Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. In both Paris and Bangkok, she served more than one year as Acting Deputy Chief of Mission.
She also served as Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in London. Earlier in her career, Kvien was detailed to the National Security Council in Washington, D.C. as Director for EU, Ukraine and Belarus affairs. Other overseas assignments include the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia; the U.S. Mission to the EU in Brussels; and the U.S. Embassy in Manila, Republic of the Philippines.
Domestic assignments include the Office of European and Regional Affairs, and the Office of Central European Affairs, both in the Bureau of Europe and Eurasian Affairs. Kvien, a native of California, holds a BA from Occidental College and an MS from the U.S. Army War College. She is a recipient of multiple State Department performance awards and speaks Russian and French.