Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador, Dies at 64
The deputy Russian ambassador, Petr Iliichev, said in brief remarks at a United Nations meeting on Monday
that Mr. Churkin had been in the office "until the final moments." Mr. Churkin had not often been at Security Council meetings recently, but he brushed off reporters’ questions last week about his health.
At his death, he was the longest-serving ambassador on the United Nations Security Council,
and he sometimes jokingly called himself the "permanent representative," the formal title for each member nation’s top envoy to the United Nations.
20, 2017
Vitaly I. Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, died on Monday while at work in Manhattan, shocking the diplomatic community.
Her predecessor, Susan E. Rice, called Mr. Churkin "highly effective
and very funny." And François Delattre, France’s envoy to the United Nations, called him "a master of diplomacy." William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting.
His death comes at an important juncture in Russian-American relations, with many diplomats watching to
see how he would interact with Nikki R. Haley, the Trump administration’s United Nations ambassador.
Mr. Churkin had formerly worked as a translator, and as ambassador he sometimes became visibly annoyed
with United Nations translators who could not keep up with his rat-a-tat speaking style.
In an interview in October, Mr. Churkin said the last time Russian-American relations were so strained was more than
four decades ago, when the Arab-Israeli conflict nearly brought the two Cold War powers to a military confrontation.
