Requiems abound for Vitaly Churkin, the former child star who became a Russian diplomat in the USSR era & was savvy enough to move seamlessly from Brezhnev to Gorbachev to Yeltsin to Putin–all of whom had that certain je ne sais quoi that makes a thug.

His final days were as permanent Russian ambassador to the UN where he defended Russian carpet bombing of Syrian civilians & ran interference for Assad’s use of barrel bombs & chemical weapons. He claimed the evidence for the use of chemical weapons might have been falsified by terrorists.

He reportedly had a gift with language which he certainly would have needed to cover all the criminal territory he did in the past 43 years. He should of stuck with movies.