Prime Minister Vladimir Putin appointed Russia's longtime ambassador to the U.S. to his Cabinet Monday. Putin named Yuri Ushakov as a deputy Cabinet chief of staff, government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Putin became prime minister last month after ceding the presidency to Medvedev. He has stressed that constitutional powers of the presidency, such as setting foreign policy, would not shift to the prime minister's office. Peskov told The Associated Press that Ushakov's post, with responsibility for coordinating the foreign relations of the prime minister and Cabinet, is new. Ushakov had been ambassador to the United States since 1999, serving throughout Putin's eight-year presidency.
