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REUTERS
MOSCOW
RUSSIA'S ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, died suddenly at work in NY on Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The ministry gave no details on the circumstances of his death but offered condolences to his relatives and said the diplomat had died one day before his 65th birthday.
"The outstanding Russian diplomat passed away at his work post,"it said.
The deputy spokesman for the UN secretary-general's office, said:"He has been such a regular presence here that I am actually quite stunned. Our thoughts go to his family and to his government."
Churkin was a pugnacious defender of Russian policy, notably its intensive bombing of the Syrian city of Aleppo last year to crush rebels opposed to President.
When Samantha Power accused Syria, Russia and Iran of bearing responsibility for atrocities there, Churkin said she was acting like Mother Teresa and forgetting her own country's track record in the Middle East.
