DIPLOMATIC GIANT AND OUTSPOKEN DEFENDER OF RUSSIAN FOREIGN POLICY

The Russian Federation’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, died suddenly at his desk in New York as the result of a heart attack in late February. He served as Russia’s voice at the UN and on the Security Council for more than a decade and joined the diplomatic corps of the former Soviet Union more than 40 years ago. Prior to his position at the United Nations Churkin earned a Ph.D. in history from the USSR Diplomatic Academy, held several positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and served as Ambassador to Belgium and Canada.

A spokesperson for the Russian Permanent Mission to the UN described Russia’s loss as “grave” and Churkin as “irreplaceable.” “Ambassador Churkin,” noted his deputy, Pyotr Iliichev, “remained at his work post until the last minute. He devoted his whole life to defending Russian interests and was to be found on the very front lines and in the most stressful posts. He was a strong negotiator, a wonderful individual, and a teacher.”

Churkin’s diplomatic career spanned an extraordinary series of changes, not only for his country but for the world. Within his diplomatic lifetime the Cold War came to an end; the Soviet Union collapsed; Russian governments evolved from the nascent democracy of Boris Yeltsin to the assertive nationalism of Vladimir Putin; the environment, terrorism, Islamic extremism and cybersecurity all emerged as critical international issues. Through it all Churkin remained a resolute defender of Russian national interest and foreign policy. He did not hesitate to employ Russia’s Security Council veto, and his rapid fire speech and rapier wit were frequently deployed against
his critics.

And yet, in his own alternately curmudgeonly and charming way, Churkin was not just respected but beloved among the UN diplomatic community. He has been described as combative and pugnacious, yet he is also remembered as a wonderful character, gracious, unflappable and full of humor. Former French Ambassador to the U.N. and now French Ambassador to the United States, Gérard Araud, remembers Churkin as “abrasive, funny and technically impeccable.”

Long time NATO spokesman, Jamie Shea, now NATO’s Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, recalls how Churkin during his time as Russia’s Ambassador to Belgium and Liaison to NATO (1994-1998) “knew how to build bridges and find common ground to enable mutual understanding and to maintain real dialogue.” Those were skills honed during Churkin’s time as the Russian Federation’s Special Representative dealing with continuing conflicts in the Former Yugoslavia, and they were skills that never left him.

Vitaly Churkin’s life was diplomacy, but there were marvelous back stories to be discovered in his past. He was a child actor playing roles in several movies, and he trained as a competitive speed skater. Perhaps most important to his subsequent career, Churkin was an assiduous and accomplished student of English and among the most fluent English speakers in the Russian Foreign Ministry, so much so that he, as Second secretary to the Russian Embassy in Washington he was chosen by Russian Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin to testify before a Congressional committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on the subject of Chernobyl nuclear power station melt down.

During his long tenure as Russian Ambassador at the United Nations, Churkin interacted with several successive U.S. ambassadors, the last three of whom were women. His relationship with Ambassador Susan Rice was simultaneously challenging and respectful. Observers often noted that the two were like an old married couple engaging in repeated squabbles but always respectful of each other. Rice recalled Churkin as “smart, committed, highly effective, and very funny.”

Churkin once chided U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power for her impassioned defense of Syrian citizens against Russian collaboration with the regime of Bashar Assad reminding her of harmful American policies in Iraq and elsewhere and noting that she was hardly “Mother Teresa.” And, yet, the two remained friendly outside of Security Council debate. Power and her husband, legal scholar Cass Sunstein, actually took Churkin to a performance of “Hamilton,” where Sunstein explained the finer points of American constitutional history. Power described Churkin as “a diplomatic maestro and a deeply caring man who did all he could to bridge U.S.-Russian differences.”

In her statement of condolence, current United States U.N. Ambassador, Nikki Haley, noted that: “In my short time at the United Nations, Ambassador Vitaly Churkin showed himself to be a gracious colleague. We did not always see things the same way, but he unquestionably advanced his country’s positions with great skill.”

In one of his last interviews with the state-funded Russia Today network just days before his death, Churkin reiterated his fundamental belief that, “The U.N. continues to be an indispensable mechanism. Without the U.N. we would be acting all on our own, without much coordination, and then we will be even less successful than we have been so far.”

That belief was second only to what Churkin insisted was the guiding principle of his diplomatic career: “Never underestimate a colleague.” Certainly, none of his colleagues ever underestimated Vitaly Churkin.