Georgiy Mamedov

Georgiy Enverovich Mamedov (; born 9 September 1947) is a Russian diplomat of Azerbaijani descent, and one of Russia's foremost authorities on the United States and Canada. In the 1990s and the early 2000s, he was his country's chief interlocutor with the United States on such subjects as NATO, arms control and Kosovo.

Mamedov served as Russia's ambassador to Canada between 2003 and 2014.

Biography Georgiy Mamedov was born on September 9, 1947, in Moscow. His father, Enver Nazimovich Mamedov, had been a diplomat for a few years, and was to spend most of his later career working for the Soviet mass media in a variety of positions, including that of the Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Radio and Television in 1962–1985, directly in charge of Soviet television from 1970 to 1985.

Georgiy Mamedov graduated in 1970 from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He then joined the Institute for U.S.A. and Canada Studies in 1970 and became a protégé of the institute's founder, Georgi Arbatov, the leading Soviet specialist on the United States at the time.

After entering diplomatic service in 1972, Mamedov was posted at the Soviet Embassy in Washington from 1972 to 1973 and again from 1977 to 1981. While in Washington from 1977 to 1981 he impressed the Americans, who called him "George," but he was also suspected of working with the KGB.

In 1989–90, Mamedov served as the first deputy director, in 1990–91, the director, of the US and Canada Desk of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR.

In 1991, Mamedov became Russia's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in charge of the relationship with the countries of the Americas, and occupied this position until 2003.

Georgiy Mamedov holds a Ph.D. in history and speaks English and Swedish in addition to Russian. He is married and has two adult children, a son and daughter.