STRASBOURG, France -- The Russian ambassador to the Council of Europe, Yevgeny Prokhorov, died early Thursday after a car crash, a police spokesman said.
He said Prokhorov, 45, drove off the road and smashed into a tree at about 3 a.m. local time in a quiet country area close to the German border. He died instantly.
No other car was involved and the spokesman said it was not known why Prokhorov lost control of his car.
The Russian ambassador to the council, a 40-nation democracy and human rights watchdog, had spent Wednesday evening with Russian Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin, who was on a visit to the Strasbourg-based council.
Prokhorov, who was married with two children, was returning home when he had the accident.
He was appointed as consul general to the Council of Europe in 1994, becoming ambassador in 1997. He had previously worked as a diplomat in India and Nepal and had just been nominated by Moscow to become a judge at the European Court of Human Rights.