Ex-Pentagon Spokesman to Move to State Dept

A two-star naval officer and well-respected Pentagon spokesman is moving over to the State Department to brief reporters on U.S. foreign policy and diplomatic affairs, a U.S. official said Wednesday.

Rear Admiral John Kirby, who has been the highly-visible face of the Pentagon since December 2013, is to take over as State Department spokesman from Jen Psaki, a U.S. administration official confirmed to Agence France Presse.

Psaki moved back to the White House last month as director of communications, and her deputy Marie Harf has been serving as the acting spokeswoman in the interim.

Kirby announced in February he was stepping down when new Defense Secretary Ashton Carter took up his post indicating that he wanted to have a civilian as the Pentagon's press spokesperson.

Psaki, who took over from Victoria Nuland as the State Department spokeswoman in February 2013, had won respect for her calm, unflappable handling of breaking news crises, running the gauntlet of the world's media.

But she was often the target of Russian media outlets and bloggers for voicing U.S. criticism of Russian foreign policy, particularly in Ukraine.