AKIPRESS.COM - President-elect Donald Trump plans on Tuesday to nominate Exxon Mobil Corp. chief Rex Tillerson for U.S. secretary of state, setting off a confirmation fight that puts the oilman’s ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin -- and Trump’s own -- in the spotlight, Bloomberg reports.

The nomination is sure to spark a high-profile battle in the U.S. Senate, where three Republicans and several Democrats have already expressed public misgivings about making Tillerson the nation’s top diplomat, largely over concerns about his two decades of work with Putin.

Tillerson has accepted Trump’s offer, according to a person familiar with the transition. He will reach Exxon’s mandatory retirement age of 65 in March and, if confirmed, would be the first oil executive to lead the State Department.

Trump made clear in an interview on Fox News Sunday that he would not back away from defending Tillerson or his work in Russia, calling his global relationships an attribute. He called the executive “a world class player.”

“And to me, a great advantage is he knows many of the players,” Trump said. “And he knows them well. He does massive deals in Russia. He does massive deals for the company, not for himself, but the company.”

Yet those ties aren’t viewed as an asset by some of Trump’s most prominent Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill. Senators John McCain of Arizona and Marco Rubio of Florida are among lawmakers who have questioned Tillerson’s dealings with Putin. Rubio sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, where he could join with Democrats on the panel to block Tillerson’s nomination from reaching the Senate floor.

“Being a ‘friend of Vladimir’ is not an attribute I am hoping for from a #SecretaryOfState," Rubio said in a tweet on Sunday that was signed with his initials.