MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday appointed a nationalist firebrand who once described NATO as a "dying organization" as Russia's new envoy to the Western military alliance.
Putin named Dmitry Rogozin, 44, in a presidential decree, the Kremlin said in a statement, following approval of his candidacy by both houses of the Russian parliament last year.
"The fact that my political views and professional skills are in demand corresponds with my desire to work for the motherland and to serve Russia," Rogozin was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency after the announcement.
He also said his new duties would involve "interesting and responsible work that is important for my country" and called on all Russian "patriots" to join the government "at this key moment for our homeland."
The appointment comes amid testy relations between NATO and Russia, which has pulled out of a key Cold War arms treaty and has warned Washington against setting up missile defense installations in Europe. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer welcomed the appointment of the nationalist firebrand as but said the move would do little to change relations. "Ambassador Rogozin is welcome here, of course," Scheffer told reporters in Brussels on Thursday. "I don't think his arrival will change, in any fundamental way, the relationship."
Rogozin is a former member of parliament who made his name by defending the rights of ethnic Russians in the Baltic states in the 1990s and setting up the anti-im-migrant political party Rodina (Motherland).
He has expressed hawkish positions against NATO, calling on Russia to increase its military presence to counter the alliance's forces in the Baltics and describing the alliance in 2006 as a "dying organization."
Analysts said his appointment reflected harsher attitudes towards the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
Vyacheslav Nikonov, director of the Politika foundation in Moscow, was quoted by Interfax as saying the appointment was "indirect evidence of the Russian leadership's dissatisfaction with the activities of the alliance."
Rogozin is known for his xenophobic rhetoric and stinging criticism of the West but he is also seen as a skillful diplomat and his official biography says he speaks English, French, Italian and Spanish.
As Putin's special representative to the Kaliningrad exclave on the Baltic Sea in 2002 he managed to secure a deal with the European Union for a special visa regime for locals to transit Poland and Lithuania to mainland Russia.
Rogozin also served as Russia's representative to the Strasbourg-based Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), a 47-nation body that concentrates on human rights issues.
But his term at PACE was marred by controversy and Russia was deprived of voting rights for one year after virulent criticism from Rogozin in 2000 of a "prejudiced" report on the war-torn province of Chechnya.
Rogozin has also expressed support for Serbia's opposition to Kosovo independence and during his candidacy hearings in the Russian parliament last year he said Russia must stand firm on the issue.
He helped establish the Rodina party in 2003 and was elected to parliament later that year. Rodina was seen as an ally of Putin but the party's influence waned after it appeared to distance itself from the Kremlin.
In 2005, Rodina was banned from taking part in local elections in Moscow after one of its campaign ads featuring Rogozin showed dark-skinned immigrants and called on voters to "clean the rubbish out of Moscow."
But analysts say Rogozin is not the maverick figure that he appears to be.
"Rogozin allows himself exactly what he can allow himself. He has a deep understanding of situations.
He is a very flexible person," Yevgeny Minchenko, director of the International Institute of Political Analysis, said earlier.
By Dario Thuburn, Agence France Presse
