Sergey Yastrzhembsky

Sergey Vladimirovich Yastrzhembsky (Russian: Серге́й Владимирович Ястржембский, Polish: Siergiej Władimirowicz Jastrzębski), born December 4, 1953, Moscow, is a Russian Federation politician and diplomat.

During Second Chechen war he was Yeltsin's and Putin's Spokesperson.

Descends from the szlachta of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Educated at Moscow State Institute of Foreign Relations (MGIMO) - allegedly 'a recruiting ground for the KGB' - under the Soviet Union's Foreign Ministry in 1976, and as a postgraduate at the Soviet Academy of Sciences' Institute of the International Workers' Movement in 1979, where he earned a Ph.D. in history. Worked as President Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesperson on the conflict in Chechnya for 14 months before winning promotion in March 2001 to head the Kremlin’s Information Policy Department, co-ordinating all Putin’s external communications.

In 2004, Putin made him presidential special envoy to the EU in Brussels, where he earned a reputation for maladroit statements. That post Vedomosti on 8 May 2008 reported said would become defunct when he left the post after Putin stepped down. Towards the end of his posting to Brussels, Yastrzhembsky warned the EU that recognizing Kosovo's independence would open a "Pandora's box" of separatism in Europe.

His job was being scrapped – unlike other Putin aides, he was leaving the Kremlin’s service of his own accord, a source close to the Russian foreign ministry told the Western-owned Moscow business daily, adding: "His dismissal is probably connected with the future redistribution of powers between the president (Dimitry Medvedev) and the prime minister (Putin).".

Currently he is involved in shooting a series of documentary films on traditional African peoples, entitled "Beyond the Passage of Time".