| Vitaly Churkin | |
|---|---|
| Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 1 May 2006 |
|
| Preceded by | Andrey I. Denisov |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 21 February 1952 Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Alma mater | Moscow State Institute of International Relations |
Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin (Russian: Виталий Иванович Чуркин) (born February 21, 1952 in Moscow) is the Permanent Representative (Ambassador) of the Russian Federation to the United Nations. He replaced Andrey I. Denisov on 1 May 2006, when he presented his credentials to the then-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan.
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He graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1974, and began working for them then, and received a PhD in history from the USSR Diplomatic Academy in 1981. He was then Director of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)/ Russian Federation. He also served as a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, and was Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation from 1992 to 1994.
Prior to his current diplomatic post, Churkin was his country’s Ambassador to Belgium from 1994 to 1998, and to Canada from 1998 to 2003. He was then Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, a post he held from 2003 to 2006.
He is also the chairman of the Senior Officials of the Arctic Council. He is fluent in Russian, Mongolian, French and English.
Churkin won some notoriety in 1986 when, as a 34-year-old second secretary, he was selected by then-Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin to testify before the United States Congress on the Chernobyl nuclear power station accident.[1] This was reported as the first time in history a Soviet official testified before a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.[2] The choice of Churkin, then a relatively junior diplomat, was due to his reputation as the most fluent English-speaker in the Soviet Embassy; media reported he possessed "an array of English slang."[2] Churkin's performance led to his being parodied in a Washington Post political cartoon series, Mark Alan Stamaty's "Washingtoon", as Vitaly "Charmyourpantsoff".
1974 - graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations
1981 - PhD in history from the USSR Diplomatic Academy
1974 - joined the USSR Foreign Ministry
1974-79 - staff member of the USSR delegation to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
1979-82 - third secretary, US desk, USSR Foreign Ministry
1982-87 - second, first secretary, USSR Embassy in Washington DC
1987-89 - staff member, International Department, CPSU Central Committee
1989-90 - special adviser to the USSR Minister of Foreign Affairs
1990-91 - Director, Information Department, Spokesman of the USSR Foreign Ministry
1992-94 - Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation to the talks on Former Yugoslavia
1994-98 - Ambassador of Russia to Belgium, Liaison Ambassador to NATO and WEU
1998-2003 - Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Canada
2003 - April 2006 - Ambassador at Large, MFA, Chairman of Senior Arctic Officials, Arctic Council, Senior Official of Russia at the Barents/Euro-Arctic Council
In 1985 he undertook a speaking tour of United States universities invited by USGov .
April 8, 2006 - Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, Representative of the Russian Federation at the UN Security Council Diplomatic rank — Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (1990)
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Andrey I. Denisov |
Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations 2006 - |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
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