Alexander Avdeev is new Russian ambassador to the Vatican

The Federation Council’s (Russian Senate) foreign affairs commission has chosen former Culture minister Alexander Avdeev as Russian Ambassador to the Vatican and the Order of Malta, Russian government daily newspaper Rossiskaia Gazeta reported today.
 
The decree of appointment must now be signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Avdeev, 66, is an experienced diplomat who worked at the Russian Embassy in Paris during the Soviet era and returned to France as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the French Republic between 2002 and 2008. 

He has also held the post of First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.