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from 1985 to 1990, despite my junior rank, my
position as ‘private secretary’ to the ambassador
and chief of protocol of the embassy and my
nature to be helpful and constructive, allowed
me to get to know many people from different
layers of American society, officials, business
and academic personalities, cultural figures, etc.
Despite being tethered to the ambassador’s front
office for an average of twelve to fourteen hours a
day, I still managed to do a lot of public speaking
before live audiences and on network TV and
to attend social events. In the process, I visited
forty-five of the fifty states. In all, I was blessed
with friendships, both professional and personal,
many of which have lasted to this day. More
in those five years, than in the ten years at the the presidency and announced that the USSR
United Nations in New York, actually, due to the would “cease its existence” on New Year’s Eve.
difference in demand: most UN staff members at Shortly thereafter, in January 1992, I was invited
UNHQ, unless they professionally interact with to join the same protocol office but now of the
host country and host city authorities, can go for president of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin.
years without meeting an American – doormen It too was interesting work. The highlight was
and cab drivers excluded – unless the person in my assignment to advance President Yeltsin’s
question already has contacts and friendships participation in the first ever summit meeting of
and a desire to maintain and grow them. I acted the United Nations Security Council in January
on the same instinct when I arrived in Geneva 1992. Eleven months later, on December 25, I
in 2003, immediately immersing myself in the resigned my position in the Kremlin and headed
cultural and academic life of Geneva. What else to New York City in January 1993, to start a new
can I tell you; I am a Hollywood classic movie life with my wife and eleven-year-old son as a
buff and love country music and classic jazz. Oh, staff member of the United Nations Secretariat
and I have been and continue to be a faithful with a six-month contract at the P3 level in
follower of Star Trek, or a ‘trekkie’ as we are hand. Joining the United Nations Secretariat
known, since I was ten years old. was something that I had decided and worked
on to achieve. I was the first Georgian to join
You spent over four decades in diplomacy and the Secretariat against the newly established
international relations, including more than Georgian geographic quota.
thirty years at the United Nations—in both New
York and Geneva. Can you share more about that The first and most important formative
experience and how it shaped your professional experience as a UN staff member was the
outlook? satisfaction of working impartially for all the
As I noted above, I began my career as a ‘bilateral member states of the Organization and not just
diplomat’ working for my country which at the for one country. I must admit, though, that it
time was the Soviet Union. I have always been, took me about a year to train my heart not to skip
am and will be a Georgian, ethnically, mentally, a beat at the sight and sound of a presidential
physically, culturally, but at the time, my little motorcade! The other key formative experience
native land was part of the Soviet Union, and was when I first went on mission to a war-torn
I saw no discrepancy. At the end of my five area and saw the people for whose well-being,
years in Washington, D.C., I was invited to often survival, we were working in offices in New
join the protocol office of the newly established York and other comfortable duty stations. The
administration of the president of the USSR. work and role of the United Nations and of my
It was exciting work planning foreign visits small part in the huge Organization immediately
and accompanying the president and Mrs. fell into perspective and became worthwhile
Gorbachev and managing the visits of foreign when I saw the bright eyes of displaced children,
dignitaries. All that came to a screeching halt on so unfortunate, yet so enthusiastic and full of
December 25, 1991, when Gorbachev resigned energy and kindness. That first feeling stayed

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