Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov will return to Washington by the end of the month, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told journalists on Wednesday.
"Soon, soon! Anatoly Ivanovich [Antonov] has been all packed up and ready to go this entire time <...>," he said with a smile.
"I think that before the end of the month, Anatoly Ivanovich will definitely return to Washington," the senior diplomat added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that at the talks with his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden they agreed that the two countries’ ambassadors will return to their workplaces in Moscow and in Washington.
"As for the return of ambassadors to their places of work - of the US ambassador to Moscow, and, respectively, of the Russian to Washington, we agreed that this issue is resolved," the Russian leader told reporters after the Russian-U.S. summit in Geneva.
He added that the ambassadors "are returning to their places of duty."
