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President Vladimir Putin last night appointed a firebrand nationalist who champions re-armament to counter the West as Russia's permanent representative to Nato.
Putin has signed a decree appointing Dmitry Rogozin, the flamboyant former head of Russia's Motherland party, to the organisation, a Kremlin spokeswoman said.
Rogozin, 44, who has called for Russia to rearm to counter the threat from the Western military alliance, has said that if he got the job he would defend the interests of Serbia in Kosovo.
Nato is viewed with great suspicion in Russia, where officials say expansion eastwards shows the alliance forged during the Cold War is being used by the United States and top European powers to counter Russian influence.
Putin, who has hiked military spending during his eight-year presidency, has warned that Russia will not remain indifferent to Nato's "muscle-flexing" near its borders.
Rogozin, was born into a Moscow military family and studied journalism at Moscow University.
He worked as Putin's representative in negotiations with the European Union over the status of Kaliningrad, which is a Russian enclave, after EU expansion.
Rogozin replaces Konstantin Totsky as Russia's permanent representative to Nato.
Totsky was appointed by Putin in March 2003. He is 57.
Rogozin, who calls himself parliament's "chief diplomat", was quoted in 2004 by local news agencies as saying that Nato was a US-dominated body that carried out "the rather aggressive interests of the United States."
Rogozin made his Motherland party highly popular with attacks on the West and calls to curb illegal immigration.
He resigned as leader of his party last year under what activists said was pressure from the Kremlin, disturbed by his popularity.
And he was featured in election campaign advertisements in 2005 that a Moscow court said incited racism.
- REUTERS
