Albin Lohr-Jones/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Vitaly Churkin, the longtime Russian ambassador to the United Nations, died Monday in New York, according to Russian officials.
The Russian Mission to the U.N. declined to reveal the circumstances of his death.
In a short statement calling Churkin an “outstanding” diplomat, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Churkin died Monday, the day before his 65th birthday, in New York.
Churkin had served as the Russian ambassador since 2006.
He had a reputation as a master of U.N. procedure, and frequently jousted with his American counterparts over Georgia, Crimea, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Ukraine.
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