After earning his doctorate, Voronkov joined the Institute of Economics at the Soviet Academy of Sciences and became a Polish interpreter for the
Central Committee, interpreting for Central Party Chairmen
Leonid Brezhnev and
Konstantin Chernenko. Voronkov joined the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1989 and, until 1994, worked as a press attaché in
Poland at the Soviet and then Russian Embassy. Since 1994, he has held various positions with the Foreign Ministry in Moscow,
Poland, and
Vienna. From 2008 to 2011, he served as Director of the Department of European Cooperation at the Ministry. In 2011, he was appointed Permanent Representative of the
Russian Federation to the UN and other International Organizations in Vienna. In June 2017, UN Secretary-General
António Guterres appointed Voronkov to serve as the first Under-Secretary-General of the UN Counter-Terrorism Office, which was created on 15 June 2017. It was predicted a Russian would get the position, as Russia was the only country favored to receive the post, being the only permanent member of the
UN Security Council that did not have one of its nationals holding a major UN position. ==Personal life==