Committee will come to order. Today, we will hold the nomination hearing on a very important position. The honorable John J Sullivan to be the ambassador to the Russian Federation. First, we have two very distinguished colleagues of ours who wish to introduce our nominees. Torefore, i am going postpone my Opening Statement and i ask the Ranking Member to do likewise. Beh that, we are glad to joined by senators sullivan of alaska and cardin of maryland. Sullivan thank you very much, mr. Chairman, Ranking Member menendez. It is an honor to be in front of the committee again in front on behalf of my friend John Sullivan to support his nomination to be the United States ambassador to the Russian Federation. Despite what his last name would suggest, we are not related, although i regularly joke with senator markey who is also a proud sullivan member in his heritage that at some point in history, we will probably all related. I have supported secretary sullivans nomination before and can spe