A scion of a well-known German aristocratic family, the Lambsdorffs, is to be appointed the country's new ambassador to Russia, according to widespread media reports on Tuesday.
A decision is soon to be taken on the appointment of Alexander Graf (Count) Lambsdorff, 56, the deputy leader of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) in the federal parliament, the reports said.
Lambsdorff is the nephew of Otto Graf Lambsdorff, a long-serving minister in the 1970s and 1980s.
Géza Andreas von Geyr is currently ambassador in Moscow. The position has been regarded as a difficult posting since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Germany expelled 40 Russian diplomats in April, and Russia responded with the expulsion of 40 German diplomats, corresponding to around a third of the German diplomatic corps.
Lambsdorff has worked in the past for the German Foreign Service, serving in the press department in Washington between 2000 and 2003 and between 2003 and 2004 as an expert on Russian affairs.
He was a member of the European Parliament between 2004 and 2017.
