Andrei Kozyrev

Andrei Kozyrev
Андрей Козырев
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia
In office 11 October 1990 – 6 January 1996
President	Boris Yeltsin
Preceded by	Vladimir Vinogradov
Succeeded by	Yevgeny Primakov
Personal details
Born	(1951-03-27) 27 March 1951 (age 73) Brussels, Belgium
Spouse	Elena Kozyreva
Alma mater	Moscow State Institute of International Relations

Andrei Vladimirovich Kozyrev (Russian: Андре́й Влади́мирович Ко́зырев; born 27 March 1951) is a Russian politician who served as the former and the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation under President Boris Yeltsin, in office for the Russian SFSR from October 1990 and, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, from 1992 until January 1996 for Russia. In his position, he was credited with developing Russia's foreign policy immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union, although many^[who?] in Russia have criticized him for being weak and not assertive enough in defending Russian interests in the face of NATO in places such as Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ba'athist Iraq.

He was the Russian representative during the signing of the Oslo I Accord, for which he received criticism from Russian nationalist politicians and parties.^{[citation needed]} His anti-imperialist and pro-western positions, however, were positively viewed. Kozyrev had graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) with a PhD in history before joining the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1974, holding various positions in it before being appointed foreign minister.^[1][2]