The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin, 64, is dead. It was reported that the ambassador who had represented the country since 2006 died suddenly while in New York on Monday, a day to is 65th birthday.
He suffered from a cardiac arrest while at the Russian Mission on East 67th Street. He was taken to the New York's Presbyterian Hospital, where he was then pronounced dead.
President Putin has offered his condolences to the family of Churkin, he said;
He was an outstanding person. He was brilliant, bright, a great diplomat of our age
Also former US Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power wrote;
Devastated by passing of Russian UN Amb Vitaly Churkin.Diplomatic maestro &deeply caring man who did all he cld to bridge US-RUS differences.