Igor Sergeyevich Ivanov (born 23 September 1945) is a Russian politician who was Foreign Minister of Russia from 1998 to 2004 under both the Yeltsin and the Putin administrations.

Early life

Ivanov was born in 1945 in Moscow to a

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n father and a Georgian mother (Elena Sagirashvili). In 1969 he graduated at the Maurice Thorez Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages (

Moscow State Linguistic University ) , former_names = Moscow Imperial Commercial School(1804–1917) Moscow Institute of New Languages(1930–1935) Maurice Thorez Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages(1935–1990) , motto = ''Lingua facit pacem'' , motto_lang = ...

). He joined the

Soviet Foreign Ministry The Ministry of External Relations (MER) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (russian: Министерство иностранных дел СССР) was founded on 6 July 1923. It had three names during its existence: People's Co ...

in 1973 and spent a decade in Spain. He returned to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1983. In 1991 he became the ambassador in Madrid.

Minister of Foreign Affairs

He was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs on September 11, 1998. As Russian foreign minister, Ivanov was an opponent of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

's action in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

. He was also an opponent of the

U.S. invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

. Ivanov played a key role in mediating a deal between

Georgian President Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

Eduard Shevardnadze and opposition parties during Georgia's " Rose Revolution" in 2003.

Resignation

Ivanov was succeeded to the post of foreign minister by Sergey Lavrov in 2004, and appointed by President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

to the post of Secretary of the Security Council, followed shortly by the appointment of Sergey Lavrov as foreign minister. On 9 July 2007, he submitted his resignation. On 18 July,

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Putin accepted Ivanov's resignation and appointed

Valentin Sobolev Valentin is a male given name meaning "strong, healthy, power, rule, terco". It comes from the Latin name ''Valentinus'', as in Saint Valentin. Commonly found in Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Scandinavia, Latin America ...

as acting secretary, Ivanov is professor of Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University), member of the Supervisory Council of the

International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe The International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe (also ''The Luxembourg Forum'') — is an international non-governmental organisation uniting leading world-renowned experts on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, materials an ...

and member of the

European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation The European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (also ''ECTR'') is a non-governmental organization that was established in Paris, France on 7 October 2008 to monitor Toleration, tolerance in Europe. The Chairman of the council is former Brit ...

. Igor Ivanov is the President of

Russian International Affairs Council The Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC, russian: Российский совет по международным делам) is a non-profit academic and diplomatic think tank established by the presidential decree dated 2 February 2010. ...

(RIAC). In 2011, Ivanov became a member of the advisory council of

The Hague Institute for Global Justice The Hague Institute for Global Justice, or simply The Hague Institute, is an international think tank based in The Hague, Netherlands. It was established in 2011 by a consortium of partners including the Municipality of The Hague, an academic coa ...

and in 2014 worked for ''

The Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' is an independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking tourists and expatriates s ...

''.

Honours and awards

Hero of the Russian Federation Hero of the Russian Federation (russian: Герой Российской Федерации, Geroy Rossiyskoy Federatsii), also unofficially Hero of Russia (russian: link=no, Герой России, Geroy Rossii), is the highest honorary title ...

(27 October 1999) * Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 2nd (1999) and 4th (1996) classes * Order of the Badge of Honour (1988) * Medal "In Commemoration of the 850th Anniversary of Moscow" *Honoured Worker of the Diplomatic Service of the Russian Federation (2003) *Gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999) *Grand Cross of the Order of San Carlos (2001, Colombia) *

Order of Friendship (Vietnam) The Friendship Order ( vi, Huân chương Hữu nghị) is a service award conferred by the Government of Vietnam for "foreigners and on collectives of foreigners that have made great contributions to building, consolidating and developing the fri ...

(2001) * Order of Saint Blessed Prince Vladimir, 2nd class (2003, Russian Orthodox Church) *Commemorative Medal Gorchakov (2005, Russian MFA) *"Silver Cross" of the Russian Biographical Institute (1999) *Laureate of the "Man of the Year" (1999)

References

Personal data sheet: Igor Ivanov

Bridget Kendall interview with Ivanov, BBC, 5 March 2003Igor Ivanov: cheery and direct, BBC NEWSIgor Ivanov

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ivanov, Igor 1945 births Living people Moscow State Linguistic University alumni Diplomats from Moscow Soviet diplomats Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (Soviet Union) Foreign ministers of Russia Politicians from Moscow People of the Chechen wars Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd class Heroes of the Russian Federation Recipients of the Friendship Order 2003 Tuzla Island conflict The Moscow Times