Moneron Island
Troyanovsky served as the Soviet ambassador to Japan before he was appointed to the United Nations. In 1980, two members of a dissident Marxist group sneaked into the UN Security Council chamber and threw red paint on Troyanovsky and US Ambassador William vanden Heuvel. The Soviet responded, "Better red than dead." In 1983, when listening to the recording of Soviet fighter pilots shooting down Korean Air Flight 007 jumbo jet near Moneron Island that killed carrying 269 people, Troyanovsky remained poker-faced and impassive.