Vitaly Churkin (Виталий Иванович Чуркин) was born on Feb. 21, 1952, in Moscow.

Education: Moscow Institute for Foreign Affairs, 1974. Ph.D., history, Soviet Diplomatic Academy, 1981.

1974: Joined the Soviet Foreign Ministry

1974-1979: Member of the Soviet delegation to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)

1979-1982: Third secretary, U.S. desk, Soviet Foreign Ministry

1982-1987: Second, then first secretary of the Soviet Embassy in Washington

1987-1989: Member of the International Department of the Communist Party Central Committee

1989-1990: Special adviser to the Soviet Foreign Minister

1990-1991: Director of the Information Department and press spokesman for Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze

1992-1994: Deputy foreign minister, presidential representative to talks on the former Yugoslavia

1994-1998: Ambassador to Belgium, liaison ambassador to NATO and the Western European Union (WEU)

1998-2003: Ambassador to Canada

2003-2006: Ambassador-at-Large at the Foreign Ministry

April 2006-present: Ambassador to the United Nations, replacing Andrei Denisov, who became first deputy foreign minister. His tenure has seen the disputed independence of Kosovo, South Ossetia and Abkhazia (the latter two following the August 2008 Russia-Georgia War), and disagreements over sanctions on Iran.

Churkin is married and has two children. He speaks Russian, English, French and Mongolian.