A key Russia expert and two other defense experts are being blocked from joining the Pentagon by GOP Sen. Josh Hawley, as the Biden administration struggles to solve the deepening Russia-Ukraine crisis and deploys thousands of U.S. troops to bolster European allies.
A top Pentagon pick for President Biden has criticized the Obama administration’s response to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea as “too slow and too incremental.”
President Joe Biden is set to nominate the chief executive of the U.S.-Russia Foundation and a former National Security Council official on Russia to be the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs on Tuesday.