JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Soviet Ambassador to Indonesia Ivan F. Shpedko died Sunday of heart failure, the Soviet Embassy said Monday.
Shpedko, 65, the dean of the diplomatic community in Indonesia had been ambassador to Indonesia since Sept. 1976.
He died in Jakarta.
'Ambassador Shpedko died last night', an embassy official confirmed without elaborating on the cause of the death, believed to be heart failure.
Shpedko was a respected diplomat who weathered several rows with the Indonesian government.
They included closure of the Soviet Aeroflot airline offices in Jakarta in early 1982, following the uncovering of a Soviet spy ring in the Indonesian capital.
Indonesia, a nonaligned country, has had low-key ties with the Soviet Union since the 1965 aborted coup that the Indonesian government believed was communist-inspired.
Shpedko's body was being flown Monday to Singapore by Singapore Airlines where an Aeroflot jet will take it to Moscow. The Indonesian Foreign Ministry expressed its 'deepest regrets' over Shpedko's death.
