Escobar's successor is named: Alexander Sasa Kasanoff

Cassanoff, as shown by the US State Department website, from Friday 19th is Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Ballani, as well as the press and public diplomacy at the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.

Sasa has previously served as the executive assistant of former Undersecretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland and the task of Undersecretary for Political Affairs John Bass. He served abroad in Ireland, Turkmenistan, Chile and Ukraine, as reported on the American State Department website.

The UN says he received the James Clement Dunn Award for Excellence for his work as Political Adviser at the US Embassy in Kyiv during the Maidan Revolution and Russia's later invasion of Ukraine.

Sasha's tasks in Washington include: Director of the Office of Global Policy and Programmes at the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Implementation, Deputy Director of the Executive Secretariat, Director of the Eastern European Affairs Office and Deputy Director of the Caucasus Affairs Office and Regional Conflicts. He is a graduate of the National College of War, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and Hamilton College. Sasha speaks French, Italian, Russian, and Spanish.