Kurt Volker
Kurt Douglas Volker (born December 27, 1964 in Hatboro , Pennsylvania ) is an American diplomat who was, among other things, Permanent Representative of the United States to NATO between 2008 and 2009 and Special Envoy for Relations with Ukraine from 2017 to 2019 .
Life
Studies, diplomat and ambassador to NATO
After attending school, Kurt Douglas Volker began an undergraduate degree at Temple University , which he completed with a Bachelor of Arts (BA). A postgraduate course in the subject International Relations at George Washington University , he graduated with a Master of Arts from (MA International Relations). In 1986 he first became an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), for which he worked as an analyst until 1988. In 1988 he joined the diplomatic service as a Foreign Service Officer and initially worked at the headquarters of the US State Department until 1994 and was a special assistant to the Embassy Council at the Embassy in the United Kingdom . From 1994 to 1997 he was Deputy Counselor for Political Affairs at the Embassy in Hungary . After serving on the staff of the Republican US Senator from Arizona John McCain from 1997 to 1998 , he was First Secretary at the Permanent Mission to NATO in Brussels and then until 2001 Deputy Director of the private office of the then Secretary-General George Robertson .
Following Volker functioned between 2001 and 2005 as director for NATO and Western Europe at the National Security Council NSC ( National Security Council ) and 2005-2008 First Deputy Head of the Department for Europe and Eurasia at the State Department (Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs ) . On May 2, 2008, he succeeded Victoria Nuland as Permanent Representative of the United States to NATO and held this post until his replacement by Ivo Daalder on May 13, 2009. After he resigned from government service, he was a member of Strategic Advisory Group of the Atlantic Council and Fellow of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies . In 2011 he took over the position of Managing Director for International Affairs at the BGR Group .
Special envoy, Ukraine affair and impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump
On July 7, 2017, Kurt Volker was appointed special envoy for relations with Ukraine by US President Donald Trump . In the wake of the Ukraine affair , which led to the impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump , he resigned as special envoy on September 27, 2019. He traveled to Kiev in May 2019 for the inauguration of the newly elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi . The delegation also included Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Gordon Sondland , the United States Ambassador to the European Union .
In the impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump testified on October 3 in an eight-hour hearing. He described Giuliani as the driving force behind efforts to persuade Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and its influence on Trump's image of Ukraine. Volker had arranged for Giuliani to meet a close advisor to Zelensky. In addition, Volker delivered text messages to Congress between himself and diplomats Gordon Sondland and Bill Taylor, as well as with Ukrainian officials and Giuliani, which were made public on the same day by the governing committees. They were supposed to show that Volker and Sondland were actively involved in further advancing Trump's goal of a Ukrainian investigation, while Taylor described the reluctance to provide military aid for this goal as "crazy". Volker and Sondland are said to have prepared a text that Zelenskyj should read out when the investigation was publicly announced. Volker returned to Congress on October 16 to go over his statements again. Kurt Volker revised his statements at the private hearing, at which he said he had seen no evidence that the President had made a meeting with Zelenskyj in the White House or made military aid dependent on an investigation. Now he testified that he had a new point of view because he had learned many things that he did not know at the time of the events in question. Tim Morrison was asked about a conversation between Gordon Sondland and Andrij Jermak , assistant to the Ukrainian President, that took place on September 1; his reply that Sondland had told Yermak that the Ukrainian attorney general would have to issue a statement regarding the investigation as a condition for the military aid to be released is interpreted as confirmation of the quid pro quo, even though Morrison did not use that term for it.
His marriage to Karen Volker had two daughters.
Web links
- Entry on the homepage of the Office of the Historian of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Kurt Volker in nndb (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ US Permanent Representatives on the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on the homepage of the Office of the Historian of the US State Department
- ↑ Kurt Volker resigns as Ukraine envoy after mention in whistleblower complaint, source says . In: Fox News Channel of September 27, 2019
- ^ Trump phone call affair. US-Ukraine envoy resigns . In: Tagesschau from September 28, 2019
- ↑ Rebecca Shabad, Alex Moe: Volker provided evidence Giuliani ran 'shadow shakedown' in Ukraine, Democrat says. In: nbc news. October 3, 2019, accessed October 24, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Arden Farhi: Ex-Ukraine envoy testified he was "never asked to do anything" he thought was wrong. In: CBS News. October 16, 2019, accessed October 25, 2019 .
- ↑ Nicholas Fandos, Julian E. Barnes and Peter Baker: Texts From Top Diplomat Described 'Crazy' Plan to Keep Aid From Ukraine. In: The New York Times. October 3, 2019, accessed October 25, 2019 .
- ↑ Josh Lederman: US ambassadors pushed Ukraine to investigate as condition for White House visit, texts show. In: nbc news. October 4, 2019, accessed October 25, 2019 .
- ^ Kyle Cheney: 'I have learned many things': Kurt Volker revises Ukraine testimony. In: Politico. November 19, 2019, accessed November 22, 2019 .
- ↑ Alex Ward: One of the Republicans' witnesses confirmed a quid pro quo on TV. In: VOx. November 19, 2019, accessed November 23, 2019 .
- ↑ Former NSC official Tim Morrison confirms Ukraine quid pro quo during public testimony. In: The Week. November 19, 2019, accessed November 23, 2019 .
- ↑ CONGRESS: Volker provided evidence Giuliani ran 'shadow shakedown' in Ukraine, Democrat says . In: NBC Nightly News of October 3, 2019
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Volker, Kurt |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Volker, Kurt Douglas (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American diplomat and political scientist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 27, 1964 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hatboro , Pennsylvania |