Marie Yovanovitch to Join Foreign Affairs Think Tank

Here is more from Politico:

Marie Yovanovitch is joining the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program. Yovanovitch will primarily be working on her book while there.

Yovanovitch is a recently-retired US diplomat whose abrupt removal by President Trump from her post as ambassador to Ukraine became a focus of impeachment hearings. William Burns, President of Carnegie, has defended her on numerous occasions.

She is also a Senior State Department Fellow at Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.

Atlantic Council Chairman Jon Huntsman to be Envoy to Russia

Atlantic Council Chairman Jon Huntsman has been offered the position of US Ambassador to Russia and has apparently accepted it.

Many Russians seem to like Huntsman, but they don't have as much love for his think tank, Atlantic Council.  Here is more from the New York Times:

Most Russian officials reacted favorably, he [Dimitri Simes, President of the Center for the National Interest] said, though some expressed concern about Mr. Huntsman’s ties to the Atlantic Council, a think tank of which he is chairman of the board, because it is perceived in Moscow as anti-Russian.

Indeed, Russian senator Alexei Pushkov was quoted in Sputnik as saying that Huntman's recent work as head of Atlantic Council, "a think tank critical of Russia," suggested that as ambassador Huntsman would "be no dove."

Vox says there is no evidence that Huntsman has any expertise on Russia, noting that "the closest is a stint from 2014 to present, as chair of the Atlantic Council."

MarketWatch says that Atlantic Council is "deeply critical" of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Politico notes that the think tank supports the expansion of NATO.

Here are all of Atlantic Council's writings on Russia.  A look through them shows recent articles such as one entitled "Here's Why You Should Worry About Russian Propaganda," and "Putin Learns the Hard Way that Crimean Crime Does Not Pay."

Here is Think Tank Watch's recent piece on US think tankers wooing Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak.

Think Tankers Wooed Russian Ambassador to US

Many think tankers around Washington, DC seemed to take a liking and consult regularly with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Here is more from The New York Times:

Invited to think tanks to discuss arms control, he would invariably offer an unapologetic defense of Russia’s intervention in Ukraine and assail Americans for what he portrayed as their hypocrisy — then afterward approach a debating partner to suggest dinner.

“Not all of us, myself included, initially appreciated his very tough, in-your-face style,” said Dimitri K. Simes, president of the Center for the National Interest and an advocate of closer Russian-American relations, who hosted a dinner at his home for Mr. Kislyak after his arrival in Washington and regularly invited him to events at his center. “But we gradually came to develop a grudging respect for him as someone who was really representing the positions of his country.”

Mr. Simes introduced Mr. Kislyak to Mr. Trump in a receiving line last April at a foreign policy speech hosted by his center at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Mr. Kislyak was one of four ambassadors who sat in the front row for Mr. Trump’s speech at the invitation of the center. Mr. Simes noted that Mr. Sessions, then a senator from Alabama, was there, but he did not notice whether he and the ambassador spoke at that time.

Here is a Democratic National Committee (DNC) email obtained by WikiLeaks which paints Simes as pro-Russian.

Think tank expert Matthew Rojansky of the Wilson Center, who speaks regularly with Kislyak, says he thinks it is unlikely that Kislyak is a spy.

Kislyak has spoken at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on several occasions, as well as at other think tanks like the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Pivot: French Ambassador Now Hates Think Tankers

At one time, Gerard Araud, French Ambassador to the United States, loved to hang out and party with think tankers.  Now, after a year and a half in Washington, DC, it looks like he has had a bit of a falling out with think tankers.

Here is more from Moises Naim in The Atlantic:

Gerard Araud, the French ambassador to the United States, has said, in the words of the Financial Times, that Washington “is mostly about ‘PR’” and that he feels like a prisoner in the city. The ambassador also mocked Washington’s men and the city’s mores. He feels, in the FT’s words, that in D.C. “men wear suits three sizes too large for them, and dinners always start too early. Socializing with Washington’s politicians, journalists and ‘think-tankers’ takes more out of him than bargaining with adversaries.”

As a remedy, Mr. Naim actually suggests that Amb. Araud embrace think tanks even more, saying that he "could participate in one of the dozens of talks, conferences, and panel discussions held daily at the 393 think tanks that are just minutes away from his embassy."  Think Tank Watch is not sure if that was meant to be or joke or not...

Why the hate?  Is it because he has created some waves at certain think tanks?