Question: I would like to ask you to describe the personality of V.I. Trubnikov, his significance for Russian diplomacy and statehood in general.
S.V. Lavrov: He was a good friend, if we talk about my personal relationship with him.
From a historical point of view, V.I. Trubnikov was a prominent statesman of our time. He worked in a variety of responsible positions: Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. Occupying these high positions, he was an example of honest and absolutely selfless service to the Fatherland. Whether in foreign intelligence, whether in a building on Smolenskaya Square, Vyacheslav Ivanovich has always been guided solely by national interests, subordinating all his actions to this, and thus achieved very significant results for the Motherland. His achievements were marked by the highest awards of the Russian Federation and the Soviet Union.
We warmly recall how V.I. Trubnikov worked for us as the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was actively engaged in the development of Russian approaches in the post-Soviet space, primarily within the CIS. He was the author of a number of initiatives that received the approval of the country’s top leadership and made it possible to make Russia’s policy in this direction more effective. At the same time, Vyacheslav Ivanovich headed the Russian part of the joint working group on combating terrorism with the American side. There was such a glorious time when, together with the Americans, we were looking for common, and therefore more effective, ways to combat this evil.
As Ambassador of Russia to India, V.I. Trubnikov made a significant contribution to the development of our strategic partnership, then a particularly privileged strategic partnership with this state. Vyacheslav Ivanovich possessed the highest professionalism, the deepest knowledge. He enjoyed deep respect in the Foreign Ministry staff, which rarely happens to people who, as they say, were “political appointees” and came to the Foreign Ministry from another field of activity. The Intelligence Service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are close structures, if only because most of the Foreign Ministry and a significant part of the SVR staff are MGIMO graduates. V.I. Trubnikov symbolized in this sense the closeness of our two collectives, which on the basis of the division of labor do one common thing.
A source: https://www.mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/1844226/
