was due to his reputation as the most fluent English-speaker in the Soviet embassy; media reported he possessed "an array of English slang". Churkin's performance led to his being parodied in Mark Alan Stamaty's Washingtoon, a political cartoon series in The Washington Post, as Vitaly "Charmyourpantsoff". Actions as a United Nations Representative Georgia In 2008, during the Russo-Georgian War, Churkin proposed a draft resolution imposing a weapons embargo on Georgia. The draft was criticized by the United States who saw it as "a ploy to divert attention from the fact Moscow had yet to pull out of Georgian territory outside two breakaway regions". The draft was officially introduced on 9 September 2009, and no actions were taken on it. Crimea On 13 March 2014, Churkin was questioned by Arseniy Yatsenyuk on whether Crimea had a right to hold a referendum which would determine Crimea's status as a part of either Russia or Ukraine. On 20 March 2014, amid tension rising in Crimea, he responded to the CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour's criticism of him and his daughter, a Russia Today journalist Anastasia Churkina. Iran On 25 June 2014, Churkin commented on the first round of talks regarding the Iranian nuclear program, saying that the talks between the P5+1 states and Iran were successful. The talks were held by him and six other diplomats in Vienna from 16 to 20 June and he said that the second round would begin on 2 July and end thirteen days later. Iraq On 12 June 2014, Churkin briefed on the crisis in Baghdad, Iraq, saying that there was no threat to his colleague Nickolay Mladenov, who is the head of the UN's political mission in that country. He also noted that the violence there erupts further north. Srebrenica massacre During the Yugoslav Wars—in the Srebrenica massacre—about 7,500 people were killed by Bosnian Serb troops in a span of eleven days. It was later found to be an act of genocide by the International Court of Justice. The UK sponsored a resolution which would pronounce the Serbian people genocidal and commemorate the 20th anniversary of the massacre. The Russian Federation, after Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, was the only country on the security council that was against the resolution (China and three other countries abstained): Churkin issued a veto on his country's behalf at the UN Security Council on