Kurt Volker (eng. Kurt Volker) is an American diplomat. US Permanent Representative to NATO (2008-2009). Director of the McCain Institute in Arizona (2011-2019). US Department of State Special Representative for Ukraine (2017-2019).
Place of Birth. Education. Kurt Volker was born December 27, 1964. In 1984, he received a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Temple University. In 1986 – graduated from George Washington University.
Career. He began his career as an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency in 1986.
In 1988, he joined the United States Department of State as a foreign service officer. While serving in Foreign Affairs, he worked as a lawyer on Senator John McCain’s team from 1997 to 1998. In 1998 he became First Secretary of the US Mission to NATO and in 1999 became Deputy Director of the Private Office of NATO Secretary General George Robertson, where he served until 2001.
He then became Acting Director for European and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council, so he oversaw US preparations for the 2004 NATO Istanbul Summit and the 2002 Prague Summit. In July 2005, he became Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, subsequently appointed as the United States Permanent Representative to NATO in July 2008 by President George W. Bush.
In 2011, he joined the BGR Group, a lobbying firm and investment bank in Washington DC, where he runs an international group of companies.
Since 2011, he has directed the McCain Institute in Arizona.
On July 7, 2017, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appointed Kurt Volker as Special Representative for Ukraine. He will coordinate the efforts of the State Department to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. As a special representative of the State Department, Walker will have to negotiate a peaceful settlement in the Donbass and the implementation of the Minsk agreements with the Kremlin leadership, including Vladislav Surkov, an aide to the Russian leader, and also maintain contacts with the participants in the Normandy format – France and Germany. Walker has repeatedly expressed his negative attitude towards the Minsk agreements and the Putin regime publicly.
At the end of September 2019, Kurt Volker resigned from the position of Special Representative of the US State Department for Ukraine.
In October 2019 Kurt Volker resigned from officedirector of the McCain Institute in Arizona.
Since September 1, 2024, he has become an independent member of the Board of Directors of BGS Rail.
Quotes. “I think Putin wants to seize the territory between Eastern Ukraine and Crimea, including Mariupol. He can annex Transnistria, which is already occupied by Russia” (in an interview with Voice of America on December 30, 2014).
“The agreement signed in Minsk in February should not be called peace agreements, but an agreement on the division of Ukraine, which was imposed on Kiev by Germany, Russia and France. The Minsk agreements are not a solution, but a problem, since in fact they give legitimacy to the Russian invasion of Ukraine” (in an interview with Voice of America on July 24, 2015).
“On Crimea, he (Trump, – ed.) will surely close one eye. As for the integrity of the rest of Ukraine, it will be difficult to leave Putin a free field for maneuver” (in an interview with Ouest France on November 5, 2016).
Family. Walker is married. Wife Karen Davis Walker, was an employee of the US State Department. They have two daughters.
December 24, 2024