"An extraordinary diplomat. Energetic, creative, daring".
"I lost a polar specialist, a professional and a very warm person".
"You know, we were like boxers in the opposite sides of the ring".
- I think you're sort of Western. You're a sharp guy. How about you defect to our side?
Vitaly Churkin: If you wait for that, your life will be wasted, Madam.
"He was always a straight-A student. It was his natural state. He just had to be first in everything".
"He served as a permanent representative during one of the most complicated periods in the US-Russian relationship. And he did it with dignity and wisdom".
The news that came on February 20, 2017 was horrible. Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin died. Next day, he would have turned 65.
CHURKIN
New York, New York. The city of not one, but many Towers of Babel. A tough and demanding city, and at the same time, if you come here sure of yourself, it's a city without limits. New York and Churkin were waiting to challenge each other.
This is the part of Manhattan island that hosts Russia's Permanent Mission to the UN. 75th Street. We are now following the route which, whenever there was a window in his tight schedule, Vitaly Ivanovich would take to get to work in the morning.
He used to walk along Park Avenue which is also where the office of Henry Kissinger stands. With this veteran of diplomacy, as we know, they were on good terms, meeting not only at official dinner parties, but also in private. Kissinger was preparing a speech for Churkin's 65th birthday.
Henry Kissinger, 56th US Secretary of State: "Actually, it was a birthday letter. I wrote that out of many ambassadors I saw in my life, he was one of the most extraordinary. I wanted him to know that".
Living in Manhattan, Churkin, as we know, loved visiting the part of it where not a very long time ago he took a photo with a childhood friend who came to visit him from Moscow. Do you recognize him? It's Boris Tokarev. Yes, the very same actor who played in The Two Captains, as well as in The Dawns Here Are Quiet and Hot Snow.
Boris Tokarev: "He often said, "When I retire, Borya, you and I will make a movie, a feature film about the diplomatic work and life. It's incredibly interesting to look at from the inside".
From the inside or not, but we'll also try to have a look at it. For example, next to Churkin, on 76th Street in New York, lived the representative of Italy. When we came to him, he started describing Churkin with one peculiar episode.
Cesare Gagaglini, Italy's Permanent Representative to the UN: "The first person I told about my new appointment— I was being transferred from New York to Moscow — was Vitaly Churkin. And he was the first one to teach me how to say ambassador in Russian."
On the corner of 68th and Lexington, Churkin would often stop to get a newspaper. His attitude towards and relationship with media was special. He was the first Soviet diplomat to regularly appear on American TV, back in the 80's.
- Could you share your personal impression of Mr Reagan and Mr Gorbachev?
- Well, I'd rather not do that. I don't know them personally.
Later, he'd personally meet and talk to many different people.
And here's 67th street and the Russian Mission where Churkin died at his workplace. Across the street—a fire station that responded to a 911 call that day. The first responders ran across the street and into the mission, but couldn't save Churkin.
Inside the mission there's a gallery of all UN representatives from the Soviet Union and its successor, the Russian Federation, but the record time in office belongs to Churkin— according to our calculations, he served for 10 years 10 months and 12 days.
Vasily Nebenzya, Russia's Representative to the UN: "All people on these pictures have already made history, and he's going to enter the history as a person who knew how to be tough, extremely tough, and yet everyone valued his friendship and wanted to be friends with him, including those with whom he had the hardest conversations. He was an extraordinary diplomat".
Samantha Power, US's Permanent Representative to the UN: "I think Vitaly's competitiveness, his Russian nationalism were manifested in sports. I've never gotten on a tennis court with him but I can easily imagine how it was".
And on this photo — look closely — Churkin is playing football with the Chinese being an ambassador to Canada, back when many other parts of the Russian government were only thinking whether they should work with China, as remembered by his Chinese colleague from the Security Council.
Li Baodong, China's Representative to the UN: "He was a real diplomat. Not only did he know the global agenda and life in general, he also had a good grasp of sports".
Samantha Power: "He loved sports. I remember vividly going to hockey matches with him. He was crazy about the Russians, no matter the team. He was Russian through and through".
Hockey? One of his non-work friends is a hockey player. Alexei Yashin. They met when Churkin was the ambassador to Canada and Yashin played there in the NHL for the Ottawa Senators. How does he remember it? Was Churkin strict? Or?
- Some of his employees, when they are being honest, say that they respected him but also were afraid. He was that strict. What was he like in an informal setting?
Alexei Yashin, Hockey Player: I think it wasn't so much about being strict, as about being disciplined, focused, and knowing that he wasn't representing himself, but rather his entire country.
So let us make our first real stop here, in Russia. International expert Churkin was one of our own. But what kind of person was he?
INTERNAL EVALUATION
On the Smolenskaya-Sennaya Square in Moscow stands the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that has its own museum. Some of Churkin's belongings are now here on display. Churkin's former employee Maria Zakharova who brought us to this repository of diplomatic rarities first showed us the legendary leather folder with which Churkin used to come to Security Council meetings. Everyone saw it many times but up close…
Maria Zakharova, Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson: "I wanted to show you its supposedly best side but you can see that it's not at its best. It's very... Worn out. I have to say that for me... This is the side he held to himself. It's amazing. He was a star, a person admired by the entire world. But when it came to these everyday things, he was absolutely undemanding".
In the same museum there's a friendly caricature that Churkin received on his 60th birthday. It shows all periods of his work including the most difficult zigzags which are not well known outside the Ministry and which we're also going to talk about today.
But some things cannot be found even in the Ministry's annals, Only at MGIMO University. On this old black-and-white photo, Churkin — this is him — is in a student construction brigade. His university friend Denisov is currently Russia's Ambassador to China.
Andrey Denisov, Russia's Ambassador to China: "I'll tell you a secret. Vitaly Ivanovich loved arguing. He was trying to make a case for everything, and in our small construction brigade in Siberia he was nicknamed Theorist. Theorist Churkin. Back then we didn't know the word analytic".
Back to the recollections about Churkin from foreigners. This is how his phenomenal success in media is described by one the most eminent journalists accredited to the UN.
Edith Lederer, Associated Press Chief Correspondent at the UN: "He was a maestro of diplomacy. And as we know, he learned acting even as a child in a movie about Lenin."
There was this movie about Lenin, "Blue Notebook", where two brothers, kids of the revolutionaries who were hiding Lenin in Razliv, were played by schoolboys Vitaly Churkin and Boris Tokarev.
Boris Tokarev: "Whenever he'd see this footage, he'd say, "See, I always knew I'd be in the Lenin school of diplomacy." It was his favorite joke".
We filmed Boris Tokarev with his wife, also an actress, Lyudmila Gladunko. That's her standing next to Irina Churkina at the wake. It was a friendship between families. Both Boris Tokarev and Lyudmila Gladunko are certain that Churkin was born for the screen.
Lyudmila Gladunko: "So cute with this hedgehog".
Boris Tokarev: "Absolutely real, natural. He could've been a great actor".
Li Baodong: "I know that Mr Churkin was a famous child actor in Russia, In the UN he was undoubtedly a star as well".
Boris Tokarev has a book that Churkin prepared for his father's 100th birthday.
- May I?
- Sure, go ahead. It has amazing short stories. Very down-to-earth.
- Looks like him.
- Yes, very much.
- What I see on these photos are simple Russian people.
- A very simple family. Absolutely.
MARINKINO
There it is. A small village of Marinkino in the Vladimir Region that gave birth to the family of Churkins. We'll come back here later and right now let's sum up what we already understand.
So, it seems that destiny itself was trying to make the boy a movie actor or an athlete— he was quite good with speed skating, and even got a special badge, yet he decided to apply to MGIMO, even though for him, a guy without connections, it was never going to be a simple way. And it wasn't. There's an amusing video proof to that.
Look. At the UN General Assembly, Putin is approached by a Mongolian colleague. If you look closely, you can notice an unusual expression on Churkin's face, as if nostalgia. But that friendly caricature in the museum actually shows a Mongolian horseman.
- Even a joke about Mongolia. He studied Mongolian.
Maria Zakharova: It's not a joke.
Andrey Denisov: "Few people know that he studied Mongolian and got the best grade 5 years later on the state exam. I studied Chinese".
An even better description of Churkin's personality came from Maria Zakharova:
- A straight-A student is something else. It means that you are rewarded with a grade. -So you do it for…
- And he did it for himself?
- His internal evaluation was what mattered most to him. I'll be honest. It took me time to understand him. At first I thought he was too tough, too strict, too demanding of others. Many years later I realized that these incredibly high standards are what he asked of himself. And what he asked of people around him was simply to match that level.
It was this internal evaluation that made Churkin undertake extra responsibilities even as a student.
Andrey Denisov: "We had this division, a primary and a secondary language which didn't get as much formal attention. Fewer classes, less homework. But some students, including Vitaly Churkin, treated the secondary language as their primary".
As a result, instead of Mongolia there was the Soviet-American summit in Vienna where Brezhnev and Carter signed the Treaty on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. That was Churkin's first work trip abroad. It's probably him on this footage. In any case, he came to Vienna as a translator, obviously not from Mongolian but from English. And his English had been legendary.
Edith Lederer: "Ambassador Churkin, unlike other permanent representatives, had not just a great, but a superb command of English, with nuances".
Maria Zakharova: "His command of the other language was different from what we usually have in mind. He was using quotes. Quoting classical authors of the country you work in is invaluable. Quoting songs, poems, even movies, he disarmed everyone. After that, no one could say to him that he was representing a wrong country or saying wrong things".
And this is what the UN Secretary-General has to say about Churkin.
Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General: "Vitaly Churkin was a brilliant diplomat and a dear friend. It's inconceivable that he left us so early. It was a huge shock. To this day, whenever I come into the Security Council Chamber, I see him there".
Still, what kind of person was he? On these photos from the family archive, Churkin is in the mountains. He met his future wife Irina while skiing and later they taught skiing to their kids, Nastya and Maksim. In the early 90's Churkin went to a place perfect for skiing. But this is what we heard from a hotel owner in Sarajevo where he stayed back then.
- Did you know that Churkin was crazy about skiing? He was an avid skier!
Drago Blagoevic, Director of Olympic Center in Pale: Yes.
- Did he ski here?
- He didn't have time for that.
In the second part of our film we'll see Churkin shining on the sky of global diplomacy for the first time.
Today we're going to talk to different people about the various periods of Churkin's life. Take this wooden rod. That's Pale, Republica Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We know for a fact that Churkin loved sitting here between the negotiations on the severe Balkan war crisis.
This footage, never before shown in Russia, was made in 1993 or 1994. Bosnia. Balkans are torn by war. An armored personnel vehicle from Sarajevo is going to approach Serbian Pale and out of it will come Churkin. Thank you so much. Probably, the only one whose mandate caused discussions back in the homeland as we were told by British Lord Owen who back then was representing the EU at the Balkans.
- Do you remember Churkin?
David Owen, Co-Chairman of International Conference on Former Yugoslavia:
- Yes, I do remember him. Churkin is not easy to forget. Back then Kozyrev was Russia's Minister of Defence so we could work directly with him. The two of us had a good relationship. I think Churkin disagreed with Kozyrev on many points but he never let it show.
We won't introduce our next guest just yet. Let's just say he's one of the Serbs who know that Russia is always there.
Momčilo Krajišnik, 1st Speaker of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska: "In the early 90's the situation was very difficult in both our countries. We used to say that there's only sky above us and the Serbs on the ground. But Churkin definitely did everything in his power."
Only now we can try and highlight the key points, explain what made Churkin's job in Bosnia in the 90's so hard. And another point for which we'll have to digress a bit is how his time in the Balkans made Churkin into the person that our country later saw in the Security Council when it came to the memorable 2014.
Vitaly Churkin: "A truly historic event took place yesterday. Our country reunited with Crimea, something our people have been expecting for 6 decades. In strict compliance with international law, democratic procedures, without any external intervention, by the means of a free referendum, the people of Crimea exercised their right enshrined in the UN Charter and multiple international legal acts, the right for self-determination".
And the response?
Samantha Power: “A referendum took place. But it doesn't change the status of Crimea. When a thief steals something, he doesn't get ownership rights.”
For these things, Churkin always hit hard.
Vitaly Churkin: "We are not going to listen to insults being thrown at our country. If the US delegation wants us to work together in the Security Council on other matters, Ms Power needs to learn that".
Andrey Denisov: "And that's when his obstinacy, his perseverance, his consistency, his stubbornness in the best sense of that word played their part, and his professional career enters the era of something like personal diplomacy".
Informing the Security Council of the Crimean Spring, Churkin seemed to be thousands of kilometers away from Russian-Ukrainian border. But the truth is... The truth is, Manhattan indeed has no limits, and one unusual border lies here exactly on 67th Street in the former Soviet Permanent Mission. The selection of plaques at the entrance is enough to confuse anyone. Unsuspecting visitors will get even more surprised inside. What flags are we going to see there?
- I mean, I get it. UN, Russia, Belarus. Sweden?
Vasily Nebenzya: The flag of Ukraine.
That's how it's been from time immemorial. Actually, no. Memorial. At the historical meeting of the Big Three in Yalta that discussed the structure of the United Nations, Stalin pushed for a special membership not only for the USSR, but also for those Soviet republics that suffered the most during the war: the republics of Belarus, of Ukraine and even of Lithuania. He was only successful with Belarus and Ukraine. So we share the building since the Soviet times.
Vasily Nebenzya: "We are not throwing anyone out, neither from our heart, nor from our home".
Sure enough. But our Ukrainian neighbors changed a lot. What happened after Maidan, Churkin really took to heart. The tragedy of Donbass for Churkin, whose friends say that on every issue he was driven first of all by the sense of justice, was personal.
Vitaly Churkin: "It breaks my heart to think about the civilians in Debaltsevo who couldn't leave the town. You think the position of civilians in Donetsk is much better? Why haven't you said anything? The Ukrainian military has been firing at Donetsk for months, and nobody lamented that".
Donbass surely reminded Churkin something he'd seen already at the Balkans.
STORY OF ONE VETO
Sergey Lavrov, Russia's Minister for Foreign Affairs: "One of the brightest moments in his career happened when he was our special representative at the Balkans and when he played a huge part in resolving the Balkan crisis, reaching the Dayton Agreement and securing the legal rights of Republica Srpska as part of Bosnia and Herzegovina".
Boris Tokarev: "He went through a lot of these critical, tipping points, and every time he came out of them with honor. It was amazing. Take that Serbian story when he went to the sector that was going to be bombed by Americans, and arranged a press conference which made the plan get canceled. Basically, he covered the place that was going to be bombed with his body".
Sergey Lavrov, Russia's Minister for Foreign Affairs: "They even gave him a piece of land in the Republica Srpska. I think he never managed to go there".
We did go to Bosnia, on both sides. We are now on the border of two Bosnias. This is still the Muslim-Croatian Federation, and down there lies Republica Srpska. Unlike Croatia or Kosovo, here the Serbs kept their territory and even their sovereignty. It's a very fragile peace. Even the sign has been vandalized. Still, it's peace. How does it work? Contrary to all stereotypes, Sarajevo is no longer an exclusion zone. Actually, the Muslim Bosniaks and Croatians remaining here are of course excluded from the Serbs despite living in the same country. And here you will definitely see the reminder of the Sniper Alley. Even though the positioning of bullet marks begs the question, "Was it only the Serbs shooting at Sarajevo? Or did someone also provocatively shoot from the rear?"
And now we are deep inside Republica Srpska, at a former mountain Olympic cluster, but it, too, lies in ruins. So the war spread even here, to the Serbs. The Serbs are of course the closest to the Russians of all of the Balkans but even Russians struggled with them back then. Let's first hear one of the negotiating parties.
Momčilo Krajišnik: "Of course, we Serbs could win in terms of war but we didn't want that kind of victory. We didn't want to capture the territory that didn't belong to us".
Maybe so. But at the intersection where we saw Churkin passing by on an APV, we're talking to another Serb, a journalist who was observing.
Radul Radovanovic, War Correspondent: "To be fair, I should say that in 1993-94 Serbian superiority was so huge that we weren't participating much in those negotiations. We basically sabotaged them, didn't take them seriously. We captured the territory and didn't want to let go of it".
But it wasn't the only thing that made Churkin's work difficult. Yes, on another rare footage we can see Serbians happily greeting Russian peacekeepers. By the way, these guys will also later famously capture Pristina airport. But that's later. When Churkin went to the Balkans, however, when Moscow has a different view of offensive foreign policy. We carefully bring up this topic talking to Churkin's colleague, Ambassador Denisov. His answer is diplomatic.
Andrey Denisov: "You see, diplomats don't live in the 19th century. So diplomats in international organizations and other countries, in the center or out on negotiations, are not exactly free artists. They are guided by well-calculated positions, they are guided by directives approved by the governments of our countries. Of course, there's room for some creativity but this creativity has certain limits. And Vitaly Ivanovich made use of the creative part as much as he could".
Drago Blagoevic: "I remember getting a call from Karadžić after the war saying that some important Russian is coming. I didn't know Churkin back then. So he arrives. We prepared him a good room and a nice Serbian meal. He didn't eat. He left his key at the reception and walked around the streets. He was clearly thinking, looking for a solution".
What we heard now is very representative. Back then, the political weather at the Balkans and in the world was changing so rapidly that Churkin had to show the best of his diplomacy to get two results. First, to bear in mind those discussions about the foreign policy course that were going on in Moscow, and second, with this scene in the background, not to allow for Moscow here, on the Balkans, to be turned into a secondary player.
We reach this conclusion down at the hollow which is Sarajevo. But now let's head back into the mountains, to the Republica Srpska, again to the city of Pale. Do you know what is this house? In this house, back in 1941, what was then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrendered to the Germans. And during the last war, Churkin came to this place to protect the Serbs, though stubborn but our people, and also to make Russia the guarantor of the agreement that brought peace to Bosnia, however fragile. Although yes, it meant that this guest, Momčilo Krajišnik, left the prison only 4 years ago, having been condemned by the Hague Court.
- Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs in the interview he gave us names Dayton Agreement as one of Churkin's greatest achievement. Do they work?
Momčilo Krajišnik: We only wanted to get our territory and create our republic. So basically in that sense, I guess we won.
More than 20 years later, the Balkans made themselves known to Churkin again but this time he was Russia's representative to the UN.
Samantha Power: "I was a 24-year-old reporter in July 1995. I lived in Sarajevo when Bosnian Serbs moved to Srebrenica. I was there several days after the security zone fell and a colleague of mine told me about the massacre. All I could reply then was "No!" And when I found out that Russia intends to veto the Srebrenica genocide resolution, I had the same response. No!"
It's the conversation about the anniversary of the tragic events in Srebrenica when thousands upon thousands of Bosniak Muslims were shot yes, by Serbs. The story is indeed blood-chilling but also incredibly complicated. First of all, before that, Srebrenica was the base from which Bosniaks sallied on Serbs. Second, remember the recent suicide committed by a Croatian general in court? Of course, it's easy to pin all the blame on Serbs but back then in the former Yugoslavia and especially in Bosnia, it all came together.
The resolution commemorating 20 years since the events in Srebrenica was drafted by the UK. But interestingly enough, even in London there's no consensus on the subject.
- You called the tragedy in Srebrenica a predictable and predicted one. Why is that?
Lord David Owen: Because the four members of the Security Council, the UK, Russia, France and the US were lying to themselves thinking that 6,000 peacekeepers can ensure the safety of 5 territories. While the military experts gave a number of no less than 31,000.
Vitaly Churkin: "Chairman, first of all I would like you to call for a minute of silence".
Indeed, many called for the anti-Serbian resolution then but the suggestion to honor the memory of Srebrenica victims with a minute of silence came only from Churkin. Yet he vetoed the resolution, refusing to push all problems of former Yugoslavia onto Serbs. The Serbian world had a unified response, "Thank you for the Russian No!" That's the monument with Churkin's portrait built in the East-Serbian town of Sarajevo. Incumbent president of Republica Srpska Milorad Dodik is a person of a different formation but this is what he says.
- Let me ask you a what-if question. What if Russia didn't veto the resolution and it was adopted? What would have been the consequences?
Milorad Dodik, President of Republica Srpska: If the resolution was adopted, it would've condemned only Serbian people. I'd like to remind you that even Germans weren't condemned as a nation for the Holocaust. If that resolution was adopted, even those Serbs who haven't been born yet would've been condemned. Even they, being Serbian, could have been blamed for the genocide.
We asked Churkin's successor at the UN about using the veto power. But first things first. We are now in the reception hall of the Russian Mission at the UN. The walls are covered with Palekha's paintings illustrating Pushkin's tales. There are also huge tables to provide the refreshments for the guests from dozens of countries. But what's it like, to go against? I thought I should approach the veto question carefully to avoid uncomfortable moments but it wasn't a problem.
- Did you have to use that right?
Vasily Nebenzya: I did.
- Is it a hard thing to do?
- Not at all. Veto is a great instrument of keeping the balance of interests. If there were no veto, we don't know what our world would be like.
- In other words, there would've been a new crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina, at least a political one?
- Bosnia and Herzegovina are constantly in crisis as it is.
The legacy of the Balkan Wars is indeed a difficult one. Still, the Serbs have their own republic in Bosnia and Bosnia as a whole has peace. Let's remember how Churkin finished his veto speech at the Security Council.
Vitaly Churkin: "Recently there was the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war. Why didn't you convene the Security Council? Why didn't you draft a resolution to condemn carpet bombings in Hanoi, to condemn the use of napalm, the murder of 500 civilians in the village of My Lai by Lieutenant Kelly who was generously pardoned by the US president? Recently there was the 10th anniversary of the illegal invasion of the US and UK into Iraq which resulted in the death of millions and a harsh crisis that is still tearing the region apart. Why haven't the United States and the United Kingdom suggested adopting a relevant UN Security Council resolution that would've called things by their proper names?"
Edit Lederer: "He was incredible. And his excellence encompassed all issues discussed at the Security Council, especially the ones like Lybia, Crimea, Ukraine, Syria. He was a maestro".
- If we compare it to the hockey power struggle, what moves were most often used against Vitaly Churkin by his opponents?
Alexey YAshin: In hockey, I know who I can trip, who I can push. All that dirty fighting. I'm not so proficient in politics but what I can say from watching his speeches at the UN that he represented our country with a lot of dignity.
Li Baodong: "I remember well how at the Security Council both of us raised hands to veto the Syria resolution drafted by Western countries. Of course, we wanted to influence the situation in that country and thus together we protected the goals and principles of the UN Charter, we protected global justice and equality".
What about the then American vis-a-vis of Churkin? Where did we find her? The snow-covered state of Massachusetts. Harvard University. This is where, after Hillary Clinton's democrats couldn't keep either the White House or the position in the Security Council, Samantha Power returned under Trump. To teach, among other things, the art of diplomacy that Churkin learned at the Balkans. When you work far away from the center and conduct negotiations with no prompts.
Samantha Power: A lot of our colleagues would've said, "I can't."
- First, we need to receive a wire from up high.
- Exactly. They'd say, you know, the governments of our countries are still asleep.
- And with him?
- With Vitaly we could talk and discuss urgent questions without additional sanctions from his bosses. We could reach an agreement and then present it to our presidents.
And now back to that village in Vladimir Region where, as we found out, Serbs want to build another monument to Churkin. This is where the Churkin family came from and this is, apparently, where Vitaly Ivanovich learned not only to work in the higher circles and feel the higher interests, which is also important, but also to sympathize with simple people— something that was enhanced during his time at the Balkans.
It was here, at the Balkans back in the 90's, that Churkin reached the hearts not only of headstrong Serbs, Croatians and Bosniaks, but also of the negotiators from the EU and NATO. And to NATO he was soon sent to work.
In North America of NATO the Churkin family first worked in Canada and as we already mentioned, even the apparently social events he used for networking, for example with Canadian Prime Minister Chrétien. This experience in Canada will later help Churkin to raise the subject of Arctica.
Artur Chilingarov, President of Polar Association: "5 years in Canada is a serious matter. For him, it was interesting. And for us, it was professionally accurate".
Also, what was the difficult period in Churkin's life? We will talk about that in the final part of our film.
Brussels. That's where Churkin was stationed after the mission in former Yugoslavia and before Canada. By the way, here in Brussels he was a unique triple ambassador, to NATO, to the then Western European Union, and to Belgium itself. In this photo, he presents his letter of credence to the King of Belgium and it's clear that Churkin immediately won over the monarch. Moreover, when Albert II visited Russia, in an unprecedented case, he flew from Moscow to St Petersburg with the Churkins on board.
Boris Titov: When we visited him in Belgium, during his time as an ambassador there, he decided to take us around himself. You know, he was incredibly popular.
- There were no Belgians who didn't know him?
- Everyone wanted to have a picture with him. He was treated like a star.
- Is it true that while being Russia's permanent representative in New York, he would often have guests from Belgium because it was easier for them to go to Churkin?
Maria Zakharova: Yes. His European friends would come to the Churkins, to Vitaly and Irina as they called them…
- Instead of the European ambassadors.
- Exactly. He had this special something about him.
Where did Churkin get this skill of winning everyone over? It's easy to explain it by Churkin's early acting experience but as we already agreed, that was more about his natural talents, while his acquired talent came from talking on TV during his first long business trip to the US, back in the 80's, during perestroika.
Andrey Denisov: "With the blessing of Ambassador Dobrynin, Anatoly Fyodorovich, he became one of our first diplomats to participate in discussions in Congress, on American TV. And all textbooks on the art of diplomacy now tell the story when he was asked in Congress, "Can you tell us in layman's terms what happened in Chernobyl?" to which Vitaly Ivanovich, mimicking the Congressman who asked the question, said, "Can you tell us in layman's terms what happened to Challenger?"
Washington and Washington Post were especially impressed with Churkin's proficiency in slang, like "mumbo-jumbo", like "Don't even start!"
Edit Lederer: "I remember reading about Congress hearings in newspapers. Still a junior diplomat, he was holding up quite amazing".
- He was very much at ease there — back when we and the West were still…
Boris Titov: Definitely. Yeah, we were still buttoned up at the time.
Ludmila Gladunko: They were scared of him. We remember our first trips abroad when we would receive instructions and were afraid to say a wrong word.
- And he's somehow…
- Absolutely free. He had this incredible freedom inside.
Free he might've been, but the questions he received as a Soviet diplomat, weren't always easy. For example, about Lenin. Like, "Do Lenin's works contain anything that you, a Soviet diplomat, disagree with?" The response was immediate: “Well, actually, I haven't read all 52 volumes. When I do, maybe I find something.” In this day and age, it sounds like a witty retort, but back then it was borderline sedition. A Soviet diplomat, a communist saying he might disagree with Lenin.
Boris Titov: "He said himself that they were discussing with Ira a possibility of leaving the country in 24 hours".
Later, in the 21st century, when Churkin will be giving countless interviews to the media, many of them wouldn't know that, because most of those Western journalists saw him in action back in the 80's and 90's.
- What have you learned from him?
Maria Zakharova: First, there should never be blunt propaganda. Definitely a no and definitely not his style. Another lesson that he taught everyone is that the best impromptu is a well-prepared one but it's not a pre-written piece waiting for a chance to be used. The impromptu is prepared with your whole life.
For example? Again, the debates at the UN. This time, about Syria.
Samantha Power: “You have to be ashamed of it but apparently it only encourages you. You're planning your next assault. Are you incapable of shame?”
Vitaly Churkin: "Especially strange to me is the speech of the US Representative who made it sound as if she's Mother Theresa. Think about the country you're representing".
"Oh, damn it! " That's how Samantha Power remembers the situations when Churkin would trip her up with these retorts.
Li Baodong: "Vitaly Churkin is without a doubt a maestro of diplomacy. On important international issues, he was always upholding the principles. He never conceded, especially when it came to Russia's national interests. In this way, he was defending equality and justice in the world".
Cesare Gagaglini: "He was as good a diplomat as it gets. I'm not saying it just because we were friends. That's what everyone thought. His reputation at the UN was impeccable. A well-read diplomat who knew his job. A diplomat that never avoided a discussion because he was good at debating. He had amazing dialectic".
A veteran of American and global diplomacy reminds us that the UN is a special place.
Henry Kissinger: "When you're appointed a UN permanent representative, suddenly you have to deal with almost 200 countries. At the UN, situations inevitably arise where countries disagree".
But of course the way they've been disagreeing in the recent years is basically unprecedented.
Andrey Denisov: "I thought it's a very difficult office, both professionally and probably even more so psychologically. But when I see what Vitaly Ivanovich had to deal with while working on this hot frying pan — that's the only way I can describe this position — it cannot be compared to anything".
Churkin himself admitted that having started his work at the UN even he, with all his experience, had things to learn.
Vitaly Churkin: "For me, it was an unpleasant surprise how much work the Security Council works. Because what you see on TV is this big hall with countries' representatives sitting respectably behind name plaques, reading out speeches from paper. That also happens during official events. But it turns out that the most intense work, and I have to say, also the most interesting, takes place in the Security Council consultation room where journalists are not allowed, and nothing that happens there ever makes it to the screens. These consultations are informal but this is exactly where we have discussions of every question that the Security Council makes a decision on".
Samantha Power: Sometimes in the Security Council Chamber we'd feel like on stage. Some of our colleagues would even say that Vitaly and Samantha should discuss the matter at hand and then agree on the final document.
- Because if we can work together, so can the rest of the world?
- That's exactly how we felt.
Still, before his brilliant trip to New York that allowed Russia and the US work together in many instances. Churkin went through a period in his life that was probably difficult to him.
PAUSE
Today, we already had a look at a friendly caricature of Churkin in the museum that showed every step of his career: Mongolian language at the university, the trip to Washington during Soviet times, his work at the Balkans and so on. There was also a polar bear. When he returned from Canada, the Ministry of Defence HQ had only one free position for him: Ambassador at Large for Arctic Affairs.
- How typical is it for a person who worked as a Deputy Minister of Defence, who worked in the capital of a Big Seven country, in major international organizations to come back as an Ambassador at Large?
Maria Zakharova: Different things happen.
Andrey Denisov: "As an Ambassador at Large, Vitaly Ivanovich represented Russia in the Arctic Council and at that point he managed to turn Russia's routine membership in the intergovernmental, regional and, of course, a very important to us organization of Northern countries into a matter of public policy".
Churkin indeed brought the subject of the Arctic to a whole new level. Take at least the growing urgency of applications for continental shelf. There's also the global climate change that makes the Arctic ever more accessible for sailing which means that the Arctic is becoming a subject or a growing controversy between great powers.
Artur Chilingarov: "For him, it was interesting. And for us, it was professionally accurate. And most importantly for me and other polar explorers, he wasn't just a tourist".
Then the Ministry of Defence noticed that this place is too cramped for Churkin with all his experience.
Sergey Lavrov: "It seemed obvious to me that it wasn't enough for him. And I'm very glad that the president agreed with appointing Vitaly Churkin our permanent representative in New York where his talent shined in all dimensions".
Andrey Denisov: "It's really good that the country got to know him, that common people got to know him, that our ambassador made it to the news. And, again, at the risk of sounding cheesy, our diplomacy got another star".
And suddenly, Churkin dies. This minute of silence at the Security Council was dedicated to him. He was about to turn only 65.
- You said his mother lived long. Why did he burn so fast?
Boris Titov: Well…
Ludmila Gladunko: You know, for me it's a very clear story. Last time we went to New York after Boris had a very difficult heart surgery, and he was asking all these questions, he was so concerned about Boris's health, scolding him, like, "It's all your work, you are too harsh on yourself. You're always pushing it." And I would interrupt him and say, "Vitaly, what about you? I can see your schedule." He could come home at 1 am. I'm like, "When do you leave tomorrow?" He's like, "Around 6." And I'm like, "At 6 am or pm? You should change something. Think about it". And he only laughed.
Cesare Gagaglini: "Of course, the UN is a strenuous place. I worked there only 4 years, while Vitaly spent there 10 years. In Italy, we also say, "The best ones go first." I think Vitaly was the best".
Li Baodong: "Vitaly Churkin was an extraordinary member of the Russian people. Straightforward, unwavering, fair, resolute, responsible, cultured, well-read. He loved life. He loved his work. He loved his land and his people. Once again, he's an extraordinary son of the Russian people".
Boris Titov: "When we were paying our last respects in New York, everyone came. Everyone. Even his most ardent enemies".
- I brought a printout of your article in New York Times on the death of Vitaly Churkin. It's called My Friend, the Russian Ambassador. How is it possible?
Samantha Power: Vitaly was a pro. He had the ability to fight to the end.
Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General: "It's a huge loss for the Russian Federation, a loss for the United Nations. The memory of him will always be with me".
Artur Chilingarov: "It's similar to losing Yuri Senkevich. We will think about it and propose to name a ship or some structure dedicated to Arctic research after Churkin".
Henry Kissinger: "Why did he pass away so early in life? It's one of the life's puzzles".
Sergey Lavrov: "It's our diplomatic heritage".
Written and presented by Sergey Brilev
