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Russian ambassador Kadakin passes away at 67

Last Updated 26 January 2017, 19:01 IST

Russian envoy to India Alexander M Kadakin passed away early on Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest. He was 67.

Kadakin spent most of the past four-and-a-half decades and almost his entire diplomatic career in India, representing first the erstwhile United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) and then the Russian Federation.

He was an Indologist known for his knowledge about the socio-cultural history of India.  He was fluent in Hindi and Urdu too. “Deeply saddened at the passing away of Ambassador Alexander Kadakin. He was an admirable diplomat, a great friend of India and a fluent Hindi speaker who tirelessly contributed to stronger India-Russia ties,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, too, condoled the death of Kadakin, noting his “large-hearted personality” and “deep love for India”.

“For me and my family, Alexander Kadakin’s death is a personal loss. Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi held him in high esteem and valued his partnership,” she wrote to Minister-Counsellor of the Russian Embassy Anatoly V Kargapolov.
A valued friend

India lost a valued friend with the death of Kadakin, the ministry of external affairs said. Kadakin was born at Kishinev in the then USSR in July 1949. He graduated with honours from the Moscow State Institute (University) of International Relations under the ministry of foreign affairs of the USSR government in 1972. He first arrived in India in 1971 to join the USSR Embassy in New Delhi as a young diplomat.

Kadakin was the one who interpreted to Hindi the historic speech delivered by USSR leader Leonid Brezhnev at a civic reception in the Red Fort in Delhi in 1973.

He rose through the ranks at the embassy of USSR here and also had stints in Moscow in the 1970s and 1980s. He was the deputy chief of Mission in New Delhi when USSR was dissolved in 1991. He remained in the same post as the mission turned into the Embassy of Russian Federation.

Kadakin was Moscow’s envoy to Nepal from 1993 to 1997 and to India from 1999 to 2004. He returned as Russia’s ambassador to India in 2009. “Starting from 1971, the entire diplomatic career of Alexander Kadakin was closely associated with promoting Russian-Indian relations,” the Embassy of Russia said in a statement.
DH News Service

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(Published 26 January 2017, 19:01 IST)

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