Background
Ivanov was born in 1945 in Moscow to a Russian father and a Georgian mother (Elena Sagirashvili).
Ivanov was born in 1945 in Moscow to a Russian father and a Georgian mother (Elena Sagirashvili).
In 1969 he graduated at the Maurice Thorez Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages (Moscow State Linguistic University).
He joined the Soviet Foreign Ministry in 1973 and spent a decade in Spain. He returned to the Soviet Union in 1983. In 1991 he became the ambassador in Madrid.
He was appointed on September 11, 1998.
He was also an opponent of the United States. invasion of Iraq. Ivanov played a key role in mediating a deal between Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze and opposition parties during Georgia"s "Rose Revolution" in 2003.
Ivanov was succeeded to the post of foreign minister by Sergey Lavrov in 2004, and appointed by President Vladimir Putin to the post of Secretary of the Security Council. On July 9, 2007 he submitted his resignation.
On July 18, President Putin accepted Ivanov"s resignation and appointed Valentin Sobolev as acting secretary, followed shortly by the appointment of Sergey Lavrov as foreign minister.
Ivanov is professor of Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University), member of the Supervisory Council of the International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe and member of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation. In 2011 Ivanov became a member of the advisory council of The Hague Institute for Global Justice and as of 2000 works for The Moscow Times.
Married; 1 child.