Vitaly Churkin

Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin  was a Russian diplomat.  Ambassador Churkin has served as Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations since 2006. He was fluent in Russian, Mongolian, French and English.

Previously he was Ambassador at Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (2003-2006), Ambassador to Canada (1998-2003), Ambassador to Belgium and Liaison Ambassador to NATO and WEU (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)

Biography

Churkin was born in Moscow, Russia.

In 1963, at age 11, he played Kolya Yemelyanov in the Lev Kulidzhanov movie, Sinyaya Tetrad (other languages), about Vladimir Lenin. In 1964, he acted in a movie, Nol tri, about paramedics. In 1967, he played a peasant boy, Fedka, in Mark Donskoy's movie, A Mother's Heart, about Vladimir Lenin, and then he stopped his artistic career to concentrate on English language studies.

He graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1974, and began working for them then, and he received a PhD in History from the USSR Diplomatic Academy in 1981. Subsequently, he was Director of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet 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.

Churkin was Russia's Ambassador to Belgium from 1994 to 1998, and the Ambassador to Canada from 1998 to 2003. Subsequently, he served as Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2006. He replaced Andrey Denisov as the Permanent Representative to the United Nations on 1 May 2006, when he presented his credentials to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan. He has been the Chairman of the Senior Officials of the Arctic Council.

Churkin died on the 20th of February 2017 in New York City at the age of 65.

Chernobyl testimony

Churkin won some notoriety in 1986 when, as a 34-year-old second secretary, he was selected by Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin to testify before the United States Congress on the Chernobyl nuclear power station accident. This was reported as the first time in history a Soviet official testified before a Congressional committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. 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." Churkin's performance led to his being parodied in a Washington Post political cartoon series, Mark Alan Stamaty's "Washingtoon", as Vitaly "Charmyourpantsoff".

Actions as a United Nations Representative

Georgia

In 2008 during the Russo-Georgian War Churkin proposed a draft resolution imposing weapons embargo on Georgia. The draft was criticized by the United 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". According to Churkin the real reasons behind the objections was that the USA wanted to "modernize Georgia's military and backs Tbilisi's aspirations to join the NATO military alliance". The draft was officially introduced on 9 September 2009. No actions were taken on this draft.

In response to the ongoing conflict between Georgia and its breakaway republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Churkin said that the Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili should check in into a nearby professional psychiatric clinic.

Crimea

On March 13, 2014 Churkin was questioned by Arseniy Yatsenyuk on whether Crimea had a right to hold a referendum which would determine Crimea's status as a part of either Russia or Ukraine.

On March 20, 2014 amid tension rising in Crimea he responded to the CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour's attack on him and his daughter, a Russia Today journalist Anastasia Churkina:

I am taken aback by the personal attacks you resorted to in your show on March 20. I have known you for many years (including through a number of on-the-air interviews) and used to respect you professionally. So it was somewhat startling that my inability to give another interview provoked such an outburst.

Iran

On June 25, 2014 he commented on the first round of talks regarding Iranian nuclear program saying that the talks between the 6 European Union nations and Iran were successful. The talks were held by him and 6 other diplomats in Vienna from June 16 to June 20 and that the second round will begin on July 2 and end 13 days later.

Iraq

On 12 June 2014 he briefed on the crisis in Baghdad, Iraq, saying that there was no threat to his colleague Nikolay Mladenov, who is the head of the UN's political mission in that country. He also noted that the violence there erupts further north.

Srebrenica massacre

During the Yugoslav Wars the Srebrenica massacre, dubbed as most infamous systematic killing of a religious group on European soil since the Holocaust. In one week, about 7,500 persons were allegedly killed by Serbian troops. It was later found to be an act of genocide by the International Court of Justice. The UK sponsored a resolution which would condemn the genocide and commemorate the 20th anniversary of the massacre. The Russian Federation was the only country that was against the resolution: Churkin issued a veto on his country's behalf at the UN Security Council on the 8 July 2015. Numerous countries condemned Russia's negative vote at the UN. US representative Samantha Power compared deniers of genocide at Srebrenica to Holocaust deniers and said: "So long as the truth is denied, there can be no meaningful reconciliation." Amnesty International condemned the negative vote as well.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17

On 22 June 2014 he called the allegations of Russian involvement in the Boeing 777 crash false saying that the audio recording of commando communications were mixed of various conversations which includes one before a crash. On 29 July 2015 Russia vetoed a draft resolution seeking to set up an international criminal tribunal into the MH17 air disaster in Ukraine.

Career timeline

• 1974 – Graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations
• 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
• 1981 – PhD in history from the USSR Diplomatic Academy
• 1982-87 – Second, first secretary, USSR Embassy in Washington DC
• 1985 – Undertook a speaking tour of United States universities invited by USGov
• 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 Russia 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
• 8 April 2006 – Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, Representative of the Russian Federation at the UN Security Council Diplomatic rank — Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (1990)

Death

He died in New York aged 64 on 20th February 2017, it has been confirmed. The circumstances surrounding his death are as yet unknown. It is believed he became suspiciously ill at his office at Russia's UN mission and was taken to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital where he died.