that the information was private and that disclosing details of the autopsy results could hurt his reputation. Churkin was posthumously awarded the Russian Order of Courage on 21 February 2017 and the Order of the Serbian Flag 1st class. Churkin was the fifth Russian diplomat posted abroad to die unexpectedly, in a remarkably similar fashion, since November 2016, the first such death having occurred on the morning of the U.S. presidential election, 8 November 2016, inside the Russian consulate in NYC, – a fact that caused conspiracy theorists to try to detect a pattern. The apparent pattern was followed by a sudden death of Russian ambassador to Sudan Migayas Shirinskiy in the capital Khartoum in August 2017. Hours after Shirinskiy's death, Russia's government-owned news agency TASS published a list of names and brief biographies of senior Russian diplomats (naming five), who had died "of natural causes" "in the past two years" (in fact, since 30 May 2016, the day when Russian Chargés d'affaires ad interim to Ukraine Andrei Vorobyov, aged 57, died suddenly in Moscow), that included Churkin. His death was likewise cited in a list published in early May 2017 by USA Today — as one in a series of "dozens of high-profile" Russians' deaths, such as GRU chief Igor Sergun's (January 2016), in "the past three years in Russia and abroad in suspicious circumstances". See also List of Permanent Representatives to the United Nations References External links Russian mission to the UN Vitaly Churkin New Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation Presents Credentials – UN press release Arctic Council home page |- |- |- 1952 births 2017 deaths Diplomats from Moscow Soviet diplomats Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (Soviet Union) Permanent Representatives of Russia to the United Nations Ambassadors of Russia to Belgium Ambassadors of Russia to Canada Moscow State Institute of International Relations alumni Heads of mission of Russia to NATO Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation alumni People of the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation Soviet male film actors Soviet male child actors People involved in the Syrian peace process Deniers of the Bosnian genocide Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery Recipients of the Order of Honour (Russia) Recipients of the Order of Courage Recipients of the Order of Alexander Nevsky Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class