Autopsy set for Russian ambassador to UN after sudden death

The city medical examiner was expected to perform an autopsy today on Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, who died a day earlier after falling ill at his office at Russia's UN mission.
Spokeswoman Julie Bolcer said the case was referred to the office by the hospital. The medical examiner is responsible for investigating deaths that occur by criminal violence, accident, suicide, suddenly or when the person seemed healthy, or if someone died in any unusual or suspicious manner. Most of the deaths investigated by the office are not suspicious.
Vitaly Churkin, who died a day before his 65th birthday, had been Russia's envoy at the United Nations since 2006. He was the longest-serving ambassador on the Security Council, the UN's most powerful body.

The Security Council held a moment of silence today in memory of Churkin, whom UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called "not only an outstanding diplomat but an extraordinary human being."
Russian President Vladimir Putin esteemed Churkin's "professionalism and diplomatic talents," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the state news agency TASS. Moscow has not yet given a date for the funeral.
Diplomatic colleagues from around the world mourned Churkin as a master in their field, saying he had both a deep knowledge of diplomacy and a large and colorful personality. US Ambassador Nikki Haley said that while she and Churkin did not always agree, "he unquestionably advocated his country's positions with great skill."

Her predecessor, Samantha Power, described him on Twitter as a "diplomatic maestro and deeply caring man" who had done all he could to bridge differences between the US and Russia.

Those differences were evident when Power and Churkin spoke at the Security Council last month, and Power lashed out at Russia for annexing Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and for carrying out "a merciless military assault" in Syria. Churkin countered that Democratic former President Barack Obama's administration, which Power served in, was "desperately" searching for scapegoats for its failures in Iraq, Syria and Libya.
Churkin died weeks into some major adjustments for Russia, the UN and the international community, with a new secretary-general at the world body and a new administration in Washington. Meanwhile, the Security Council is due this week to discuss Ukraine and Syria.

From Moscow's vantage point, "Churkin was like a rock against which were broken the attempts by our enemies to undermine what constitutes the glory of Russia," TASS quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying.