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Interview with His Excellency
NrVaIery Loshchinin,

Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Russian

Federation to the UN Office and Other International
Organizations in Geneva

Russian Ambassador to
Minsk, or for the Treaty on
Demilitarization of the
Russian-Kazakh Border. In
short, there have been many
such accomplishments and
it is hardly possible to single
out one at the expense of
another.

However, I cannot help
mentioning the preparations
for the sixtieth Anniversary
of the Great Victory in the
Second World War. Moscow
hosted at that time more
than sixty foreign heads-of-
state and government, as
well as the heads of
international organizations,
including UN Secretary-
General Kofi Annan. That
outstanding event was not
about winners and losers.
Instead, it was aimed at
uniting efforts to prevent the
scourges of war in the
Q. Your Excellency, and especially holds a high- future.
what is your back- level position, one is
ground? ~ nevnablv involved in 0, You were First
Politics. Deputy Minister of
My professional career is Foreign Affairs of the
quite straightforward -- 0. During your long and Russian Federation.
consecutive
impressive career, what
forty-three What, from your point
years in the diplomatic is the event or experien- of view, is the main
service. I went through all ce that has given you preoccupation
of
the ranks: from attaché to the most personal Russian foreign policy
ambassador. satisfaction? today? Has it changed
since you were in
0. Would you call your- During my career there have office? If yes, in what
self a politician -- after certainly been such events, sense?
having been the First but one should bear in mind
Deputy Minister of that in diplomacy success is The strength of our foreign
Foreign Affairs of the a result of a collective effort. policy is derived from its
Russian Federation -- For example, this is true for consistency and high
or a diplomat? the Treaty on the Formation motivation. Its primary pur-
of the Union State of the pose is to create favourable
Diplonacv is nothing else Russian Federation and external conditions for the
than politics. Therefore, if Belarus, in which I was socio-economic develop-
one serves as a diplomat, personally engaged as the ment of the country and to

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