Árni Þór Sigurðsson
Árni Þór Sigurðsson (born 30 July 1960 in Reykjavik) is an Icelandic diplomat. Since 1 June 2020 he is Iceland's Ambassador to the Russian Federation, resided on Moscow, also accredited to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. He was Iceland's Ambassador to Finland, also accredited to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine, resided in Helsinki, from 2018-2020. From 1 May 2015 he was Ambassador for Arctic affairs (Senior Arctic Official), representing Iceland in the Arctic Council. He was member of parliament of the Althing, the Icelandic parliament 2007–2014, for the Left -Green Movement. He was Deputy Speaker of the Althing from 2009 to 2010 and again 2012–2013. Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Althingi Feb. 2009 - April 2013. Chairman of the Parliamentary Delegation to EFTA/EEA 2009–2013. Co-Chairman of the Iceland-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee. He was a delegate to the Nordic Council 2010-2013 and Chairman of the Nordic Council's Standing Committee of Culture and Education. Árni Þór held a number of Parliamentary Committee posts, incl. on budget and finance, economy, environment, constitutional affairs, procedural affairs etc. He was chair, vicechair and acting chair of the  Parliamentary Group 2009–2012. Prior to his parliamentary career, Árni Þór was a City Councillor in Reykjavik for 13 years, responsible for pre-schools (1994-1998), city planning and construction (1999-2002) and transport and environment (2002-2006) and Chairman of the Board of the Port of Reykjavik (1994-2006). He was vicechair of the Eurocities Mobility Forum 2002-2006 and delegate to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe 2003–2008. Árni Þór has a Master-degree in Economics and Russian from the University of Oslo, Norway and studied Russian at the universities in Stockholm, Sweden , and Moscow, Russia. He also has a diploma in Public Administration and a Master-degree in International Relations from the University of Iceland. Decorated as Commander of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Lion of Finland.