The Washington Post is reporting that Fiona Hill, a Russia analyst and expert on President Vladimir Putin, will take the job of senior director for Europe and Russia in the White House National Security Council.
The March 28 report cited unnamed officials, and there was no immediate comment from the White House. Media reports in early March also said that President Donald Trump was planning to appoint Hill, but it has not been confirmed.
Hill is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a liberal-leaning think tank in Washington.
From 2006 to 2009, she served as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council, which focuses on long-term strategic analysis for the U.S. intelligence community.
Hill is co-author of Mr. Putin: Operative In The Kremlin, a book published in 2013 and updated in 2015. In it, she said Putin is willing to use "forms of blackmail, intimidation, punishment, and blatant distortion of the truth" to defend Russia and his position.
Trump spoke admiringly of Putin during the U.S. election campaign and has said he hopes to improve ties with Russia, which are badly strained.
But senior members of his administration have taken a tougher tone in several remarks since he took office in January, and there have been few signs of concrete steps toward closer cooperation.
