Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's Permanent Representative to the OSCE. Biography

Dmitry Polyansky — early years, education

Dmitry Polyansky was born in 1971. As a child, he lived with his grandparents in Zhukovsky, Moscow region, and studied at school No. 3 with advanced English studies. According to the diplomat himself, since childhood he has been interested in other countries and international relations, and he dreamed of getting a profession related to this field. Therefore, after graduation, he entered the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University (ISAA MSU), where he studied Arabic and Hebrew.

"Until graduation, I hadn't even considered becoming a diplomat: in Soviet times, it was difficult to get into the Foreign Ministry. Rather, he was thinking of becoming a scientist or a historian. But at the time of graduation, no one needed science: such work was almost not paid," Polyansky said in an interview with the PIR Center.

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During his senior years, he also worked as a Hebrew tutor to financially support his family.

Dmitry Polyansky — career

Polyansky joined the Russian Foreign Ministry in 1993. He had to go to the interview through an emergency entrance — at that time, the so-called "October Coup" was taking place in Moscow, during which Boris Yeltsin ordered tanks to shell the White House, so the central entrance to the Foreign Ministry building was destroyed. Nevertheless, Polyansky successfully passed the competition and joined the Information and Press Department. His duties also included interacting with correspondents from Arab countries.

In 1994, Polyansky and his family went on their first foreign business trip to Tunisia. According to him, this trip allowed him to gain the necessary experience for further work. After returning, the diplomat moved to the Department of Pan-European Cooperation (DOS), where he worked on Russia's relations with the European Union for almost 15 years.

From 2008 to 2011, Polyansky was an adviser-envoy at the Russian Embassy in Poland. After that, he became Deputy Director of the First CIS Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry. In this position, he oversaw the issues of Eurasian economic integration. In 2015-2018, the diplomat headed the Representative Office of the Moscow-Taipei Coordination Commission for Economic and Cultural Cooperation.

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In 2018, Polyansky was appointed Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations. According to the diplomat, he was the only person in the Permanent Mission who had no experience working with United Nations structures, so "everything had to be mastered almost from scratch."

In his post, Polyansky participated in the drafting of official documents that were submitted to the UN Security Council for consideration, and also defended Russia's interests in cooperation with representatives of other states.

"I won't lie if I say that my responsibilities include everything: administrative and personnel issues, interaction with all services. I have to be aware of the work in all areas of the Permanent Mission," he said.

In December 2025, Polyansky became Russia's permanent representative to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).