A memorial service for the late Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, is taking place in Moscow's Central Clinic Hospital.
Churkin will be interred at Moscow's Troyekurovskoye Cemetery today.
Vitaly Churkin died in New York on February 20, a day before his 65th birthday. Churkin died at his workplace in New York on Monday, a day before his 65th birthday. He had served as Russia's permanent envoy to the United Nations and Russian representative in the UN Security Council since April 2006.
Churkin was born in Moscow in 1952. He graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1974, beginning his decades-long career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shortly.
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).
