Sir Anthony Russell Brenton, (born 1 January 1950) is a former British diplomat.

Education

Brenton was educated at Peter Symonds' School, a former direct grant grammar school for boys (which subsequently became

Peter Symonds College Peter Symonds College is a sixth form college in Winchester, Hampshire, in the south of England. Founded as a boys' grammar school, it is one of the few specialist sixth form colleges which is also a boarding school. It serves Falkland Island ...

) in the city of Winchester in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, followed by

Queens' College Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light s ...

at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

, where he studied Mathematics.

Life and career

Brenton entered the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1975, where he began his career learning Arabic and spent three years in the British Embassy in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

working on Middle East disputes. He later worked in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

on the development of European Community Foreign and Energy Policy and, also in Brussels, he worked on European Environment Policy for the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

, dealing with energy issues, the

Chernobyl Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...

crisis and the birth of European environment policy. Brenton took a sabbatical at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

to write ''The Greening of Machiavelli – The History of International Environmental Politics'' after setting up and leading (1990–92) the Foreign Office unit that negotiated for the 1992 Rio "Earth Summit", and in particular the first global agreement on climate change. In 1989–90, he headed a UN Department in the Foreign Office in London. Through 1994–98 he worked as a Counsellor in British Embassy in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

, responsible for the British aid programme to Russia, analysis of the Russian economy and UK policy towards Russia in the major international economic fields. In 1998 he was nominated to the position of Director on Global Issues in FCO. Within the sphere of his responsibilities was the policy towards the UN, human rights, the environment and international economy and development. Brenton served as British Ambassador to Russia from 2004–2008. In 2007, he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG), thereby gaining the title ''

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

''. From 2008–2017, he was a fellow of

Wolfson College, Cambridge Wolfson College () is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The majority of students at the college are postgraduates. The college also admits "mature" undergraduates (aged 21 and above), with around ...

Selected works

* Tony Brenton (2016
Historically Inevitable? Turning Points of the Russian Revolution

References

Sources

Sir Anthony Russell Brenton, KCMG from British Embassy, Moscow.
Retrieved 15 January 2008.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brenton, Tony 1950 births Living people Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Russia Fellows of Wolfson College, Cambridge Place of birth missing (living people) Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George