Russian Ambassador Kadakin passed away.

Posted on January 31, 2017

The passing away of Russian Ambassador to India, Alexander “Sasha” Kadakin, on January 26, removed from the canvas of the India-Russia relationship a staunch friend of India and a strong votary of the strategic partnership. He held various diplomatic positions in the Russian Embassy in Delhi at various stages in the India-Russia relationship, clocking a total of about 20 years in India. He had therefore an acute understanding of India’s political structures and bureaucratic procedures. As a fluent Hindi speaker, he developed a wide range of contacts in India. His was a warm-hearted and generous personality. He worked tirelessly to promote new partnership initiatives and to iron out wrinkles in the relationship on the Indian and Russian side. His would be very difficult shoes to fill in the Russian Embassy.

 

January 31, 2017

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About the Author

Born in 1955, Ambassador Raghavan holds a B.Sc. (Honours) degree in Physics and a B.E. in Electronics & Communications Engineering. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1979. From 1979 to 2000, he had diplomatic assignments in USSR, Poland, United Kingdom, Vietnam and South Africa, interspersed with assignments in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi. From 2000 to 2004, he was Joint Secretary in the Indian Prime Minister's Office dealing with Foreign Affairs, Nuclear Energy, Space, Defence and National Security. Thereafter, he was Ambassador of India to Czech Republic (2004 - 2007) and to Ireland (2007 - 2011).

He was Chief Coordinator of the BRICS Summit in New Delhi (March 2012) and Special Envoy of the Government of India to Sudan and South Sudan (2012-13). Ambassador Raghavan conceptualized and piloted the creation of the Development Partnership Administration (DPA) in MEA, which implements and monitors India’s economic partnership programs in developing countries, with an annual budget of $1-1.5 billion. He headed DPA in 2012-13. From March 2013 to January 2014, he oversaw the functioning of the Administration, Security, Information Technology and other related Divisions of MEA. Since October 2013, he was also Secretary [Economic Relations] in MEA, steering India’s bilateral and multilateral external economic engagement. Ambassador Raghavan retired from the Indian Foreign Service in January 2016, after serving from 2014 as Ambassador of India to Russia. Since September 2016, he is Convenor of the National Security Advisory Board of the Government of India.

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