The Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin, died suddenly in New York on Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
He died at age 64, one day before his 65th birthday.
Churkin suffered from cardiac arrest while at the Russian Mission on East 67th Street, a law enforcement official said. He was taken to New York’s Presbyterian Hospital, where he died.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said “the outstanding Russian diplomat died while he was in his current working role.”
“We offer our condolences to the relatives of Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin,” the ministry said.
Samantha Power, former US ambassador to the UN, said she was heartbroken by Churkin’s death and credited him with trying to help Russian-US relations.
Mr Churkin had previously served as an envoy to Canada, Belgium and as a special representative to the talks on former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
Vitaly Churkin, ambassador to UN, dies at work
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