MOSCOW, March 9 (UPI) -- Russia's Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov Tuesday named U.N. envoy Sergei Lavrov foreign minister.
The 53-year old Lavrov, the dean of the U.N. Security Council ambassadors, replaces Igor Ivanov as foreign minister. Ivanov was named as head of Russia's Security Council, the Itar-Tass news agency said.
The appointment was seen as yet another move by President Vladimir Putin to clean his slate of those left over from the regime of former President Boris Yeltsin.
Lavrov has served as Moscow's envoy on the panel of 15 since September 1994. Previous to the U.N. post he was deputy minister of foreign affairs.
He began his diplomatic career in 1972, serving in the Soviet embassy in Sri Lanka.
The dashing Lavrov is known for his quick, frequently acerbic, wit and insistence on ignoring a smoking ban at U.N. headquarters, sometimes seen carrying his own ash tray.
