Yuri Nikolayevich Merzlyakov (; born 9 April 1949) is a Russian diplomat, who was one of the 3 co-chairmen of the

OSCE Minsk Group The OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992 by the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), now Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), to encourage a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the conflict between ...

. Yuri Merzlyakov graduated from

MGIMO Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) (, also known as MGIMO University) is an higher education, institute of higher education located in Moscow, Russia. The institute is run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia), Russian ...

in 1971 and Diplomatic Academy of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1979, and worked at various positions in the central offices of the Soviet and Russian Ministries of Foreign Affairs and diplomatic missions abroad. In 1998-1999 he held the position of the special envoy at the

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (MFA Russia; , МИД РФ) is the central government institution charged with leading the foreign policy and foreign relations of Russia. It is a continuation of the Ministry of Foreig ...

and the head of the Working Group on the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

. Yuri Merzlyakov has a rank of the 1st class

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

, speaks

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

and

Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language officially used in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes. * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa. * Swahili culture, the culture of the Swahili p ...

. He is married and has a daughter. Yuri Merzlyakov was appointed on 19 July 2010 by the Russian President Dimitri Medvedev as the new Russian ambassador to Estonia, replacing his colleague . He served until 18 August 2015, when he was succeeded by .

References

Biography

Medvedev Appoints Yuri Merzlyakov as New Russia’s Ambassador in Estonia
Living people 1949 births Moscow State Institute of International Relations alumni Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation alumni Soviet diplomats Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (Russian Federation) Ambassadors of Russia to Estonia Ambassadors of Russia to Kazakhstan Ambassadors of Russia to Madagascar Ambassadors of Russia to the Comoros {{russia-diplomat-stub