Who is Who - Alexander Kasanof: American "Maidanovets," Special Envoy for the Western Balkans

Gabriel Escobar has been replaced by Alexander “Sasha” Kasanof as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. for the Western Balkans. Kasanof is a diplomat with a history of implementing U.S. policy aimed at weakening Russian influence in the former Soviet states. He was awarded for his contributions during the Maidan Revolution and the war in Ukraine. According to available data, Kasanof is a descendant of Polish immigrants who fled Warsaw for America to escape Russian occupation.

In the official biography of the new envoy for the Western Balkans, it is stated that Kasanof is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Western Balkans, as well as for press and public diplomacy in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.

Previously, he served as the Executive Assistant to former Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland and Acting Under Secretary for Political Affairs John Bass.

"Sasha's tasks in Washington include positions such as: Director of the Office of Global Policy and Programs in the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Deputy Director of the Executive Secretariat staff, Director of the Office of Eastern European Affairs, and Deputy Director of the Office for Caucasus Affairs and Regional Conflicts," according to his biography on the State Department's website.

Kasanof began his diplomatic career in Dublin, Ireland, from where he was sent to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. In an American diplomacy bulletin from 2001, he stated that his consular duties were never routine or predictable and often required thoughtful and careful judgment.

In 2009, Kasanof spent time in Chile, where he is mentioned in Wikileaks documents as a senior economic advisor at the U.S. Embassy. According to a leaked cable, he participated in vetting Chilean candidates for specialized risk management training.

His most notable assignment was in Ukraine. Serving as a political advisor in Kyiv until 2014, he received the James Clement Dunn Award for his work during the Maidan Revolution and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. His activities in Ukraine made headlines in the U.S. during the "Russiagate" scandal concerning alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.

While at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Kasanof maintained close contacts with Ukrainian businessman Konstantin Kilimnik, an associate of American lobbyist and Republican Paul Manafort, who chaired Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Manafort had lobbied for numerous foreign leaders, including former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The scandal erupted in 2020 when the Senate report during the Democratic National Convention revealed that Kilimnik was actually a Russian intelligence agent.

These claims were never proven, and Kasanof, when questioned by the FBI, described Kilimnik as one of the more reliable sources of information for the U.S. Embassy.

"He provided information about the inner workings of Yanukovych's administration," Kasanof told the FBI.

Kasanof holds degrees from the National War College, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Hamilton College. He speaks French, Italian, Russian, and Spanish.

He seems to have followed in the footsteps of his father, a U.S. Marine who continued his career as a foreign service officer in the State Department, serving in various American embassies abroad.

An interesting fact is that Alexander's grandfather was born in Warsaw and emigrated to the U.S. as a child at the beginning of the last century when Poland was a Russian province undergoing intense "russification." In America, he became co-owner of a restaurant chain but moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1957. He returned to New York just before the collapse of the USSR. He was a Mason and a member of the American Legion, a group of war veterans.