Due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Chizhov has been sanctioned by the European Union and Switzerland.

[1] In 1976, he graduated with honors from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and went to work at the USSR Foreign Ministry.

[2] From 1995 to 1996, he was the deputy head of the Russian delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna.

[3] On 15 July 2005, Chizhov became the Permanent Representative of Russia to the European Union based in Brussels.

[4][5] He is an author of a number of articles and studies in the field of European security, on the problems of the OSCE, Russia-EU and Russia-NATO relations, the Mediterranean, the Balkans, the problem of the Cyprus and Northern Irish settlement, peacekeeping operations under the auspices of the UN.

[7][8] Chizhov is criticized for citing the so-called "Dulles' Plan" as a fact in one of his articles.

The plan of the head of the CIA, Allen Dulles, whose goal was the destruction of the USSR by means of propaganda, disunity of nationalities and social groups, moral decay of the population.