Oleg Khlestov
Oleg Khlestov | |
---|---|
Олег Николаевич Хлестов | |
Vladimir Yerofeyev | |
Succeeded by | Roland Timerbayev |
Personal details | |
Born | 6 June 1923 Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
Died | 31 August 2021 | (aged 98)
Alma mater | Higher Diplomatic School of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
Awards | Twice Order of the Red Banner of Labour Order of Friendship of Peoples |
Oleg Nikolayevich Khlestov (Russian: Олег Николаевич Хлестов; 6 June 1923 – 31 August 2021) was a Soviet diplomat and academic. He served in various diplomatic roles from 1945 onwards, and was Permanent Representative of the USSR to International Organizations in Vienna between 1979 and 1988.
Entering the diplomatic service after 1945, Khlestov spent the early stage of his career with the Soviet Union's diplomatic mission in Bulgaria, before returning to the central offices of the
Khlestov became an influential academic, teaching at the
Career
Khlestov was born in Moscow on 6 June 1923.[1][2] He studied at the Moscow Institute of Law , graduating in 1945 and joining the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs that year. He then attended the Higher Diplomatic School of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, graduating in 1947. In 1949 he was assigned to the Soviet embassy in Bulgaria , initially based at the consulate in Burgas until 1950, and then the main embassy, before returning to the USSR in 1951 to work in the central offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 1960.[1][3]
Khlestov was often involved in heading delegations at negotiations between the Warsaw Pact countries and NATO to discuss the reduction of armed forces in Central Europe, as well as at the Vienna conferences on the codification of the law of international treaties (1968-1969) and consular law (1963).[3] He participated in the development of a number of bilateral international treaties; those with the United States included the Consular Convention, On the Prevention of Attack on Space Objects, and On limiting the arms trade. With Finland he helped to negotiate "On the delimitation of the continental shelf in the Gulf of Finland and the northeastern part of the Baltic Sea"; and with Norway "On the delimitation of the continental shelf in the Barents Sea, as well as with other countries."[2] He was also deputy chairman and a member of interdepartmental commissions on the development of international legal problems of space, maritime law, and Spitsbergen, and a member of the board of the Main Directorate of Geodesy and Cartography under the Soviet Council of Ministers, where he was responsible for accurately depicting borders on maps published in the USSR.[2]
From 1960 until 1965 Khlestov was deputy head of the ministry's Treaty and Legal Department, becoming its head from 1965 until 1979. From 1973 he was also a member of the ministry's Collegium.
Retirement
After his retirement at the diplomatic rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, to which he had been appointed in 1973, Khlestov continued to participate in scientific and teaching activities, becoming a professor at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.[2] He held the titles of Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation and Honorary Doctor of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry, and was vice-president of the Russian Association for the Assistance of the United Nations until 1997, and vice-president of the Russian Association of International Law.[2]
A
Over his career Khlestov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour and the Order of Friendship of Peoples, as well as various medals, by the Soviet Union, and received honours from Bulgaria and Mongolia.[1] In addition to his native Russian, he was fluent in English and Bulgarian.[2]
Khlestov died on 31 August 2021 at the age of 98. His obituary by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs described him as "a brilliant, professional, hardworking and responsible person, who was distinguished by a sharp mind, encyclopedic knowledge, intelligence and benevolence."[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f "О кончине О.Н.Хлестова" (in Russian). Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 1 September 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Интервью с О.Н. Хлестовым" (in Russian). 4 (59). Moscow Institute of Law . 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
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(help) - ^ a b c "Khlestov Oleg Nikolaevich". Moscow Journal of International Law. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
- ^ Arms Control. United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. 1979. p. 38.
- ^ Antonello, Alessandro (2019). The Greening of Antarctica: Assembling an International Environment. Oxford University Press. p. 159.
- ^ "283. Telegram From the Embassy in the Soviet Union to the Department of State". Office of the Historian. 13 December 1977. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
- ISBN 9783030520281.
- ISBN 9780198723042.