1. John Ross Beyrle was born on February 11,1954 and is an American diplomat.
17 Facts About John Beyrle
1. 2.
John Beyrle retired from the State Department in July 2012 with the rank of Career Minister, the diplomatic equivalent of a three-star general.
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John Beyrle serves on the Board of Directors of several non-profit foundations, including as Chairman of the US Russia Foundation, and as an adviser and business consultant on Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and other countries of the former Soviet Union.
4.
John Beyrle was born on February 11,1954, in Muskegon, Michigan.
5.
John Beyrle received his bachelor's degree with honors from Grand Valley State University, and a Master of Science degree as a Distinguished Graduate of the National War College.
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John Beyrle completed additional language study in Russian at the University of Michigan and Middlebury College.
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John Beyrle spent the spring semester of 1976 on an exchange program at Leningrad State University.
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John Beyrle joined the State Department in 1983, served his first tour as a political and consular officer at the US Embassy in Moscow, and later was Deputy Chief of Mission in Moscow.
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John Beyrle served as Ambassador to Bulgaria from 2005 to 2008.
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John Beyrle oversaw the end of US assistance to Bulgaria from the United States Agency for International Development, and made several public speeches urging the Bulgarian Government to step up its fight against organized crime and corruption.
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Ambassador Beyrle was nominated by President George W Bush on May 13,2008, to be the United States Ambassador to the Russian Federation, and was confirmed by the US Senate on June 27.
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John Beyrle helped organize and took part in the state visit of President Obama to Moscow in July 2009, and the reciprocal visit by President Medvedev to Washington and California in 2010.
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John Beyrle gave frequent media interviews and speeches in Russian to explain America's desire for better relations, including to university audiences in Vladivostok, St Petersburg, Nizhniy-Novgorod and Sochi.
14.
On US Veterans Day in 2009, Ambassador John Beyrle invited a large number of Russian World War II veterans to his residence, Spaso House, to highlight the wartime alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union.
15.
John Beyrle presided over the return to Russia of a medallion belonging to Czar Nicholas II, which had been stolen from the Hermitage Museum in the 1990s and recovered by a joint operation of the Russian Ministry of Culture and Russian Prosecutor's office and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
16.
John Beyrle was the first American Ambassador to Russia to use his own blog, in Russian, to speak directly to the Russian internet audience.
17.
On October 29,2010, Ambassador John Beyrle celebrated the connections between American and Russian literature and culture by hosting an Enchanted Ball at Spaso House.