Vitaly Churkin | |
|---|---|
Виталий Чуркин | |
.jpg) Churkin in 2015 | |
| Ambassador of Russia to the United Nations | |
| In office 1 May 2006 – 20 February 2017 | |
| President | Vladimir Putin Dmitry Medvedev Vladimir Putin |
| Preceded by | Andrey Denisov |
| Succeeded by | Vasily Nebenzya |
| Ambassador of Russia to Canada | |
| In office 23 August 1998 – 5 June 2003 | |
| President | Boris Yeltsin Vladimir Putin |
| Preceded by | Alexander Belonogov |
| Succeeded by | Georgiy Mamedov |
| Ambassador of Russia to Belgium | |
| In office 3 October 1994 – 25 February 1998 | |
| President | Boris Yeltsin |
| Preceded by | Sergey Kislyak |
| Succeeded by | Nikolay Afanasevsky |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1952-02-21)21 February 1952 Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Died | 20 February 2017(2017-02-20) (aged 64) New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Moscow State Institute of International Relations Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union |
| Awards |
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Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin[a] (Russian:Виталий Иванович Чуркин,IPA:[vʲɪˈtalʲɪjɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕˈtɕurkʲɪn]; 21 February 1952 – 20 February 2017) was a Russian diplomat.[1] He served asRussia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2006 until his death in 2017. Previously he wasAmbassador-at-Large at theMinistry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (2003–2006), Ambassador to Canada (1998–2003), Ambassador to Belgium and Liaison Ambassador toNATO andWEU (1994–1998), Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation to the talks on Former Yugoslavia (1992–1994), Director of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR/Russian Federation (1990–1992).
Churkin was fluent inEnglish,French andMongolian. As a child actor, he starred in three filmsThe Blue Notebook,Nol tri, andA Mother's Heart.[2]
Churkin was born in Moscow. In 1963, at age 11, he played Kolya Yemelyanov in theLev Kulidzhanov filmThe Blue Notebook, aboutVladimir Lenin. In 1964, he acted in a movie,Nol tri, about paramedics. In 1967, he played a peasant boy, Fedka, inMark Donskoy's movie,A Mother's Heart, about Vladimir Lenin, and then he stopped his artistic career to concentrate on English language studies.[2]
He graduated from theMoscow State Institute of International Relations in 1974, and began working for them then, and he received aPhD inHistory from theUSSR Diplomatic Academy in 1981. Subsequently, he was Director of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of theSoviet Union and the Russian Federation. He also served as a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, and he was Deputy Foreign Minister from 1992 to 1994.[3]
Vitaly Churkin with support fromYuri Dubinin are known to have organizedfuture US President Donald Trump's first visit to theSoviet Union in July 1987.[4][b][c]
Churkin was Russia's Ambassador toBelgium from 1994 to 1998, and the Ambassador toCanada from 1998 to 2003. Subsequently, he served as Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2006. He replacedAndrey Denisov as the Permanent Representative to the United Nations on 1 May 2006, when he presented his credentials to theSecretary-General of the United Nations,Kofi Annan. He was the Chairman of the Senior Officials of theArctic Council.[11]
Churkin won some notoriety in 1986 when, as a 34-year-oldsecond secretary, he was selected by Soviet AmbassadorAnatoly Dobrynin to testify before the United States Congress on the Soviet man-madeChernobyl disaster.[12] This was reported as the first time in history a Soviet official had testified before a Congressional committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.[13] 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".[13] Churkin's performance was filled with denials, deflections andwhataboutist rhetoric, which led to his being parodied inMark Alan Stamaty'sWashingtoon, a political cartoon series inThe Washington Post, as Vitaly "Charmyourpantsoff".[14]
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In 2008, during theRusso-Georgian War, Churkin proposed a draft resolution imposing a weapons embargo on Georgia. The draft was criticized by theUnited States who saw it as "a ploy to divert attention from the fact Moscow had yet to pull out of Georgian territory outside two breakaway regions". The draft was officially introduced on 9 September 2009, and no actions were taken on it.[15]
On 13 March 2014, Churkin was questioned byArseniy Yatsenyuk on whether Crimea had a right to hold areferendum which would determine Crimea's status as a part of either Russia or Ukraine.[16]
On 20 March 2014, amid the impendingannexation of Crimea by Russia, he responded to theCNN anchorChristiane Amanpour's criticism of him and his daughter, a state-fundedRussia Today journalistAnastasia Churkina.[17]
On 25 June 2014, Churkin commented on the first round of talks regarding theIranian nuclear program, saying that the talks between the P5+1 states andIran were successful. The talks were held by him and six other diplomats inVienna from 16 to 20 June and he said that the second round would begin on 2 July and end thirteen days later.[citation needed]
On 12 June 2014, Churkin briefed on the crisis inBaghdad,Iraq, saying that there was no threat to his colleagueNickolay Mladenov, who is the head of theUN's political mission in that country. He also noted that the violence there erupts further north.[18]
During the Yugoslav Wars—in theSrebrenica massacre—about 7,500 people were killed byBosnian Serb troops in a span of eleven days.[19] It was later found to be an act of genocide by theInternational Court of Justice.[20] TheUK sponsored a resolution, the purpose of which was to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the massacres in Srebrenica and that would have emphasized acceptance of those tragic events as genocide as a prerequisite for national reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[21] The Russian Federation, after Serbian PresidentTomislav Nikolić sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin,[22] was the only country on the security council that was against the resolution (China and three other countries abstained): Churkin issued a veto on his country's behalf at theUN Security Council on 8 July 2015.[23]
Churkin died in New York City on 20 February 2017, the eve of his 65th birthday.[24] The immediate cause washeart failure, according to Russian diplomatSergei Ordzhonikidze.[25] The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that Churkin died while at work and expressed condolences to Churkin's family.[citation needed] India's Permanent Representative to the UN,Syed Akbaruddin, also expressed his condolences, calling Churkin a "friend" and a "stalwart diplomat".[26] Former President Barack Obama's UN Ambassador,Samantha Power, tweeted that she was "devastated" and described Churkin as a "diplomatic maestro" who did all he could to bridge U.S.-Russia differences. Britain's ambassador to the UN,Matthew Rycroft, tweeted that he was "absolutely devastated", describing Churkin as "a diplomatic giant & wonderful character".[27] PedophileJeffrey Epstein, with whom Churkin had met several times from 2015 until 2017, sent an email to tech billionairePeter Thiel stating, "As you read my Russian ambassador friend died. Life is short, start with dessert."[28]
On 21 February 2017, theNew York City Medical Examiner's Office released the preliminary results of anautopsy performed on Churkin, which states that the cause of death needed further study, which often indicates the need fortoxicology tests.[29] A gag order pursuant to a request of the U.S. State Department and the United States Mission to the United Nations suppressed public disclosure of the cause and manner of death, citing Churkin's posthumousdiplomatic immunity; Russia maintained that the information was private and that disclosing details of the autopsy results could hurt his reputation.[30][31] Churkin was posthumously awarded the RussianOrder of Courage on 21 February 2017[32] and the Order of the Serbian Flag 1st class.[33]
Churkin was the fifth Russian diplomat posted abroad to die unexpectedly, in a remarkably similar fashion, since November 2016, the first such death having occurred on the morning of theU.S. presidential election, 8 November 2016, inside the Russian consulate in NYC – a fact that caused conspiracy theorists to try to detect a pattern.[34][35][36] The apparent pattern was followed by a sudden death of Russian ambassador toSudan Migayas Shirinskiy in the capitalKhartoum in August 2017.[37] Hours after Shirinskiy's death, Russia's government-owned news agencyTASS published a list of names and brief biographies of senior Russian diplomats (naming five), who had died "of natural causes" "in the past two years" (in fact, since 30 May 2016, the day when RussianChargés d'affaires ad interim to Ukraine Andrei Vorobyov, aged 57, died suddenly in Moscow), that included Churkin.[38] His death was likewise cited in a list published in early May 2017 byUSA Today as one in a series of "dozens of high-profile" Russians' deaths, such as GRU chiefIgor Sergun's (January 2016), in "the past three years in Russia and abroad in suspicious circumstances".[39]
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Ambassador of Russia to Belgium 1994–1998 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Ambassador of Russia to Canada 1998–2003 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations 2006–2017 | Succeeded by Pyotr Ilichov (acting) |
| International | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
