Yuri Dubinin, the Soviet Union's ambassador to the United States during much of the turbulent 1980s' perestroika period, has died at age 83.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Dubinin died today, but did not give a cause of death.
Dubinin became ambassador to the US in 1986 after serving a short stint as the Soviet envoy to the United Nations. He stayed in the ambassador post until becoming ambassador to France in 1990.
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After the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Dubinin was a Russian deputy foreign minister from 1994-96. In his Washington post, Dubinin described himself as a "populariser of perestroika," the reform efforts of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Dubinin also oversaw opening up the Russian embassy to news conferences under Gorbachev's initiatives.