born 20 February 1931, he was Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union for a brief period in 1991. A reformer and journalist, Pankin had only 100 days to serve as Foreign Minister before the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. In that short period, he established diplomatic relations with the State of Israel, managed the collapse of the GDR, began the Soviet-US disarmament process, brought the Soviet Union closer to the European Union and purged the KGB from the ranks of the Soviet Foreign Ministry.

Pankin is best known for being the highest-ranking diplomat to stand against the August putsch which sought to bring down Mikael Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader and promulgator of Glasnost and Perestroika.

Pankin was Soviet Ambassador to Sweden for eight years from 1982-1990. He was brought-in to clean-up after the Soviet Union's reputation was seriously tarnished in the aftermath of a diplomatic scandal in which a Soviet Whiskey class submarine became marooned in Swedish territorial waters outside of Stockholm. The incident became widely-known as "Whiskey on the Rocks." Pankin became, and remains, very popular in Sweden, and was the Soviet Union's longest-serving Swedish envoy.

Pankin was the last Soviet Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1990-1991). Pankin is credited with preventing the Communist-Czechoslovak government from interfering in the Velvet Revolution- which led to playwright and dissident Vaclav Havel's rise to the presidency. Pankin was later recalled to Moscow to become Gorbachev's Foreign Minister after standing against the putsch which attempted to topple the reform-minded Soviet leader.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Pankin was named Russian Ambassador to the Court of St. James (UK), where he served until 1994. He resigned in protest over Russia's invasion of Chechnya.

Pankin now lives in Bromma borough outside Stockholm, Sweden and works as a lecturer and writer. In January 2005 he was given the "Stockholm Citizen of the Month Award" by the city government, recognizing his dedication and loyalty to his adopted home - the city of Stockholm. Boris Pankin sits on the Board of Advisors of the Global Panel Foundation.

Published: October 19, 1991

Following are excerpts from remarks today by Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d and Foreign Minister Boris D. Pankin of the Soviet Union on invitations to a Middle East peace conference :

MR. BAKER

An American Secretary of State and a Soviet Foreign Minister are together in Jerusalem for the first time in history.

What's more, the Soviet Union has today restored full relations with Israel after a break of 24 years.

But I think that our joint presence here today represents something more. Foreign Minister Pankin and I are pleased to announce that President Bush and President Gorbachev are today inviting Israel, Arab states and Palestinians to attend a Middle East peace conference to be held beginning Oct. 30 in Madrid. That conference is to be followed by direct negotiations designed to achieve real peace.

We have witnessed new beginnings in other parts of the world. The negotiating process that we are seeking to launch with this invitation holds the hope of a new era in the Middle East. The hope of an era marked by acceptance and not by rejection, the hope of an era marked by dialogue and not by violence, the hope of an era marked by cooperation and not by conflict, and the hope of an era marked by hope itself and not despair.

This invitation offers the peoples in this region a pathway to ending an era of confrontation, and it offers a basis for a new future.

The road to peace, and I think we both understand this exceedingly well, will not be simple. To the contrary, it will be extremely difficult, with many problems, many hitches and probably many interruptions along the way. Old suspicions will not disappear quickly. The gaps are real, and the gaps will not be easily overcome. So we have no illusions about the hard work that lies ahead.

But we take encouragement from the issuance of these invitations, which is the product of work of the last eight months. As we have all along, we intend to take this one step at a time. And so if we receive positive responses to this invitation, we will be taking one more step forward toward achieving the peace and security that the peoples of the Middle East have so long been denied. MR. PANKIN

Ladies and gentlemen, the Secretary of State James Baker has just informed you of the joint Soviet-American statement. Therefore I have no other papers to read out to you. I can only say that I fully share what has just been said by Secretary Baker. However, I'd like to add a few comments.

The stage that we have now come to represents a very important turning point for the entire situation in the Middle East. We have come a long way, and we have come a long way together. We made an important contribution to the convening of this conference in our capacity as future co-chairmen of the conference, just as important contributions have been made by all the other sides in their hard and untiring efforts.

We are convinced that history is now holding out an opportunity that we must not pass up. And I urge all the participants of the conference to take this opportunity.

As has just been mentioned by Secretary Baker, we have restored full diplomatic relations with the State of Israel, and we signed a joint Soviet-Israeli statement together with my counterpart, Foreign Minister David Levy, to that effect.

"The broad range of views which

surfaced in the course of initial and,

so far, indirect discussions

does not overshadow the common

feature in the positions of
all the
parties - the desire to have a durable

and just peace in the
Middle East

and to solve the most difficult

problems that have

turned this region into the global

powderkeg."