Vladimir Voronkov

Voronkov receives the Order of Friendship from Vladimir Putin in 2014. Vladimir Ivanovich Voronkov (; born 21 June 1953) is a Russian foreign service officer who, since 2011, has served as Russia's Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna. In June 2017, the United Nations named Voronkov as the first Under-Secretary-General for the new United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT).

Early life and education

Voronkov was born in Moscow, the son of two history professors. His father, Ivan Alexandrovich Voronkov (1921–1983), was a department head at Moscow State University (MSU), and his mother taught at the Institute of Asian and African Studies at MSU. Vladimir Voronkov earned bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in history at MSU. In 1974–1975 and 1977–1978, he studied at the University of Warsaw. His thesis concerned the Polish Peasant Party in 1918–1922. He is fluent in English and Polish.

Career After earning his doctorate, Voronkov joined the Institute of Economics at the Soviet Academy of Sciences and became a Polish interpreter for the Central Committee, interpreting for Central Party Chairmen Leonid Brezhnev and Konstantin Chernenko. Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Class 1 (25 May 2006) Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (17 January 2011)