Energy Expert Appointed To Oversee Central, Eastern Europe At State Department
According to RFE/RL, U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has tapped Robin Dunnigan, a career diplomat with a background in energy, to oversee policy for Central and Eastern Europe at the State Department.
Dunnigan, who served as deputy assistant secretary for energy diplomacy in the State Department's Bureau of Energy Resources from 2014 to 2017, will help craft policy toward Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova, as well as Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, a spokesperson told RFE/RL.
She has been serving at the U.S. Embassy in Vienna for the past three years, first as deputy chief of mission and most recently as charge d'affaires to Austria.
She took up her new position on September 7.
Dunnigan was an early critic of Russian plans to build a second natural-gas pipeline to Germany along the floor of the Baltic Sea to reroute European exports around Ukraine, depriving Kyiv of about $2 billion a year in transit fees.
Known as Nord Stream 2, the $11 billion project will soon be completed after the Biden administration in May agreed to waive sanctions on its Swiss-based operator in an attempt to deescalate tensions with Germany.
“You have to ask: Why would you support Ukraine with one hand and strangle it with the other,” she told a conference of policymakers in November 2015 as the West supported Kyiv with military and economic aid to help it battle Kremlin-backed fighters in eastern Ukraine.
"Nord Stream 2 actually threatens not only Ukraine's survivability and their resources, but it is a risk to fuel diversification in Europe, especially Southeastern Europe," Dunnigan said at the time.
The Biden administration and Germany reached an agreement in July to help Ukraine handle the economic fallout resulting from the completion of Nord Stream 2, including investing in its energy industry.
The Biden administration recently appointed Amos Hochstein, a former special international energy envoy from 2014 to 2017, to oversee the implementation of the agreement with Germany.
Dunnigan will take the reins for Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova policy from Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent, who also oversaw policy toward the South Caucasus states of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia.
Erika Olson, the former director for Northern European, Baltic, and Arctic security affairs at the State Department, will now handle Caucasus affairs, regional conflicts, and Southern Europe, including Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus, the spokesperson said.
