He graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute, and worked as a diplomat from 1946. He became an adviser to the Soviet delegation at the United Nations, and a permanent representative of the Soviet Union on the IAEA Board of Governors. From 1962 to 1970, he served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union, becoming head of the press department. From 1970 to 1978, he was director general of TASS, the official news agency of the Soviet Union. He was Chairman of the International Information Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1978 to 1986. In 1986, he was appointed the Soviet ambassador to the United Kingdom. He was forced to resign his ambassadorship after his refusal to condemn the 1991 August Coup against Mikhail Gorbachev.