Oleg Kobiakov appointed Director of FAO Liaison Office in Moscow

FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu appointed Oleg Julius Kobiakov the Director of Liaison Office with the Russian Federation effective as of today.

Oleg Kobiakov, a Russian national, is a seasoned diplomat with 35 years of experience at Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). He graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations majoring in history, economics and law (1985), and completed the Ph.D. programme in diplomacy and international relations at the Centre d’études diplomatiques et stratégiques in Paris, France (2000).

His diplomatic career encompasses postings to the Russian embassy in Prague, permanent missions to the European Union (EU) in Brussels, to UNESCO in Paris, and to FAO in Rome, as well as service at the Department of International Organizations of MFA and the Minister’s Cabinet.

In 2011–2016, he was an alternate representative, then Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia, to Rome-based UN agencies. Prior to joining FAO, he was Head of Division for the UN Economic and Social Council and UN Regional Commissions at the Russian MFA.

Kobiakov has devoted over 12 years of his professional career to promoting and supporting relations between FAO and the Russian Federation. He has a broad knowledge of topics related to FAO’s areas of work and extensive practical experience in international negotiations on issues of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries and their adaptation to modern challenges, in particular food insecurity, healthy nutrition, and sustainable development.

He possesses a proven track record of administering Russian contributions to UN agencies, especially FAO, the World Food Programme, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, in addition to directing respective technical cooperation projects.

Oleg Kobiakov played a key role in the establishment of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to Rome-based UN agencies in 2011 and in the opening of the FAO Liaison Office in Moscow four years later. He served as rapporteur for FAO’s European Regional Conferences in Baku, Azerbaijan (2012) and Voronezh, Russia (2018), as well as a member of the Executive Committee of the FAO European Commission on Agriculture from 2015–2017.

Oleg Kobiakov is fluent in English, Czech, and Russian (mother tongue), and speaks French and Italian.

28 February 2020, Moscow, Russian Federation