Vladimir Putin with Viacheslav Kovalenko 18 January 2007

Vyacheslav Yevgenevich Kovalenko (russian: Вячеслав Евгеньевич Коваленко) (born 27 March 1946) is a career diplomat and a former Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Armenia. He served as ambassador to

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

until the breakdown of diplomatic relations between Georgia and Russia in the wake of the August 2008 war. Kovalenko graduated from the

Institute of Oriental Languages The Institute of Oriental Languages was founded in 1956 on the basis of a number of departments belonging to History and Philology faculties of Moscow State University. N.A. Smirnov became the first rector (1956–1958). In 1972 the institute was ...

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

in 1972, and went on to work in various diplomatic posts in the central offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and abroad. In 2004, Kovalenko was appointed as Director of the Second Department of

Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. ...

(CIS) countries at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and was appointed as Ambassador of Russia to Georgia on 11 July 2006. On 29 August 2008, Georgia ordered all Russian diplomats to leave the country. Kovalenko left Tbilisi on 30 September with 22 Russian diplomats on a flight to Moscow. Kovalenko speaks

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, Belarusian and French.

September 2007 controversy

On 24 September 2007, the then Russian ambassador to Georgia, Vyacheslav Kovalenko, became embroiled in a controversy over his statement at a televised informal meeting with Georgian intellectuals organized by the Tbilisi-based Russian-Georgian Friendship Union in which he referred to the Georgian people as a "dying-out nation", and announced to the Georgians that they will soon become extinct in the face of

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...

while Russia is "a large country, a huge country. It can digest this. You, the Georgians, will fail to digest this." The statements sparked public outrage in Georgia, and Kovalenko was summoned by Georgia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for explanations while the opposition factions in the Parliament of Georgia demanded the withdrawal of Kovalenko from Georgia. Georgian Parliamentary Chairperson,

Nino Burjanadze Nino Burjanadze ( Georgian: ნინო ბურჯანაძე , also romanized Burdzhanadze or Burdjanadze, born 16 July 1964) is a Georgian politician and lawyer who served as Chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia from November 2001 ...

, responded to the ambassador’s prediction: "Maybe, certain forces in Russia really want to see the extinction of Georgian nation, but this will not happen… I would advise Mr. Kovalenko to think about Russia and its demographic problems and we will ourselves take care of Georgian problems, including the demographic ones."Row over Russian Envoy's 'Dying-Out Nation' Remarks
''Civil Georgia''. 2007-09-24.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kovalenko, Vyacheslav Yevgenevich 1946 births Living people Moscow State University alumni Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (Russian Federation) Ambassadors of Russia to Armenia Ambassadors of Russia to Georgia (country)