List of ambassadors of Russia to the United Kingdom

Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United Kingdom
Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United Kingdom
Ambassador of Russia to the Court of Saint James's
	Emblem of the Russian Foreign Ministry
	Incumbent; Andrey Kelin; since 5 November 2019
	Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Embassy of Russia, London
Style	His Excellency; The Honourable
Reports to	Minister of Foreign Affairs
Residence	Harrington House
Seat	London
Appointer	President of Russia
Term length	No fixed term
Formation	1556
First holder	Osip Nepeya [ru]; as ambassador to the Kingdom of England
Website	Embassy of Russia in London

The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or formally the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Court of St James's, is the official representative of the President and the Government of the Russian Federation to the Monarch and the Government of the United Kingdom.

The ambassador and his staff work at large in the Russian Embassy in London, while the official residence of the ambassador is 13 Kensington Palace Gardens. There is a consulate general in Edinburgh.^[1]

The post of ambassador to the United Kingdom is currently held by Andrey Kelin, incumbent since 5 November 2019.^[2]

History of diplomatic relations

1553: Beginning of diplomatic relations.
1706: Establishment of the permanent mission in the Kingdom of England.
14 November 1720: Relations freezes as Great Britain (England's successor) refuse to recognize Russia as the empire.
1730: Restoration of diplomatic relations.
1741–1748: Allies in the Austrian War of Succession.
1756–1763: Opponents in the Seven Years' War.
22 November 1800: Emperor Paul imposed sanctions on Great Britain, diplomatic relations interrupted.
24 March 1801: The new Emperor Alexander cancels the sanctions on the request of British monarch George III, relations restored.
25 March 1802: Amiens peace treaty signed.
1803–1805: Allies in the coalition against France.

The United Kingdom established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in 1924. However, King George V was still upset over the execution of the Romanov family and refused to receive the Soviet ambassador. In a breach of diplomatic protocol, he dispatched the Prince of Wales to accept the Soviet ambassador's credentials.^[3]^[4]

List of representatives (1556–present)

Representatives of the Tsardom of Russia to the Kingdom of England (1556–1707)

Name	Title	Appointment	Termination
Osip Nepeya [ru]	Chief of embassy	1556	1557
Fyodor Pisemsky [ru]	Chief of embassy	1582	1583
Grigory Mikulin [ru]	Chief of embassy	1600	1601
Aleksey Zyuzin [ru]	Chief of embassy	1613	1613
Pyotr Prozorovsky [ru]	Chief of embassy	1662	1662

Representatives of the Tsardom of Russia to the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1720)

Name	Title	Appointment	Termination
Andrey Matveyev	Chief of mission	May 1707	1708
Boris Kurakin	Minister Plenipotentiary	1710	1711
Albrecht von der Liet [ru]	Resident	1711	1713
Bertram von Shak	Resident	1713	1717
Fyodor Veselovsky [ru]	Resident	9 June 1717	February 1720
Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin	Resident	March 1720	14 November 1720
Great Northern War: Diplomatic relations interrupted (1720–1730)

Representatives of the Russian Empire to the Kingdom of Great Britain (1731–1801)

Name	Title	Appointment	Termination
Antiokh Kantemir	Resident (before 17 July 1733) Envoy (after 17 July 1733)	24 December 1731	April 1738
Sergey Dolgorukov [ru]	Envoy	1738	1739
Ivan Shcherbatov [ru]	Envoy	June 1739	March 1742
Semyon Naryshkin [ru]	Envoy	31 December 1741	June 1743
Ivan Shcherbatov [ru]	Envoy	20 June 1743	August 1746
Pyotr Chernyshyov	Envoy	14 July 1746	20 March 1755
Aleksandr Golitsyn	Envoy	1755	1762
Alexander Vorontsov	Envoy	February 1762	1764
Heinrich Gross [ru]	Envoy	9 December 1763	1765
Fyodor Gross [ru]	Chargé d'affaires	1765	1766
Aleksey Musin-Pushkin [ru]	Envoy	December 1765	July 1768
Ivan Chernyshev	Envoy	1768	August 1769
Aleksey Musin-Pushkin [ru]	Envoy	12 August 1769	5 May 1779
Ivan Lizakevich [ru]	Chargé d'affaires	1775	1777
Ivan Lizakevich [ru]	Chargé d'affaires	1778	1778
Ivan Simolin [ru]	Envoy	5 May 1779	14 March 1784
Semyon Vorontsov	Envoy	24 May 1784	4 May 1800
Ivan Lizakevich [ru]	Chargé d'affaires	1785	1785
Ivan Lizakevich [ru]	Chargé d'affaires	4 May 1800	September 1800
Malta Question: Diplomatic relations by chargé d'affaires (1800–1801)
Yakov Smirnov	Chargé d'affaires	29 September 1800	25 May 1801

Representatives of the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1917)

Name	Title	Appointment	Termination	Notes
Semyon Vorontsov	Ambassador	25 May 1801	15 May 1806
Pavel Stroganov	Chargé d'affaires	10 May 1806	7 December 1806
Maxim Alopeus	Special envoy	7 December 1806	2 February 1808
Anglo-Russian War: Diplomatic relations suspended (1808–1812)
Pavel Sukhtelen [ru]	Special envoy	30 August 1812	30 September 1812
Pavel Nikolai [ru]	Chargé d'affaires	30 August 1812	18 September 1812
Khristofor Liven	Ambassador	18 September 1812	22 May 1834
Adam Matushevich [ru]	Minister Plenipotentiary	7 July 1830	23 October 1830
Pavel Medem	Chargé d'affaires	20 June 1834	31 January 1835
Carlo Pozzo di Borgo	Ambassador	5 January 1835	26 December 1839
Nikolai Kiselyov [ru]	Chargé d'affaires	1839	1840
Phillip Brunnov	Envoy	17 June 1840	18 December 1854
Crimean War: Diplomatic relations suspended (1854–1856)
Mikhail Khreptovich [ru]	Envoy	30 June 1856	8 February 1858
Phillip Brunnov	Envoy (before 4 December 1860) Ambassador (after 4 December 1860)	8 February 1858	21 May 1870
Nikolay Orlov	Ambassador appointee	21 May 1870	28 November 1870	Was not accredited
Phillip Brunnov	Ambassador	28 November 1870	22 July 1874
Pyotr Shuvalov	Ambassador	22 July 1874	19 October 1879
Aleksei Lobanov-Rostovskii	Ambassador	22 December 1879	13 July 1882
Aleksandr Davydov [ru]	Chargé d'affaires	1882	1882
Arthur von Mohrenheim	Ambassador	13 July 1882	8 February 1884
Yegor Staal	Ambassador	27 March 1884	30 August 1902
Alexander von Benckendorff	Ambassador	1902	29 December 1916
Konstantin Nabokov [ru]	Chargé d'affaires	1916	1917
Sergey Sazonov	Ambassador	January 1917	3 March 1917
Yevgeny Sablin [ru]	Chargé d'affaires	1919	1924	Unaccredited by the post-Imperial Russian government

Representatives of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1918–1923)

Name	Title	Appointment	Termination	Notes
Maxim Litvinov	Authorised representative Plenipotentiary (after June 1918)	January 1918	September 1918	Not accredited
Leonid Krasin	Plenipotentiary	1920	July 1923	Not accredited

Representatives of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1923–1991)

Name	Title	Appointment	Termination	Notes
Christian Rakovsky	Plenipotentiary	July 1923	30 October 1925	Accredited from 1 February 1924
Leonid Krasin	Plenipotentiary	30 October 1925	24 November 1926
Arkady Rosengolts	Plenipotentiary	1926	26 May 1927
Grigori Sokolnikov	Plenipotentiary	November 1929	14 September 1932
Ivan Maisky	Plenipotentiary (before 9 May 1941) Ambassador (after 9 May 1941)	8 November 1932	12 August 1943
Fedor Gusev	Ambassador	12 August 1943	22 August 1946
Georgy Zarubin	Ambassador	28 September 1946	13 June 1952
Andrei Gromyko	Ambassador	13 June 1952	May 1953
Yakov Malik	Ambassador	May 1953	11 January 1960
Aleksandr Soldatov [ru]	Ambassador	11 January 1960	25 January 1966
Mikhail Smirnovsky	Ambassador	25 January 1966	27 April 1973
Nikolai Lunkov [ru]	Ambassador	27 April 1973	5 November 1980
Viktor Popov [ru]	Ambassador	20 November 1980	10 April 1986
Leonid Zamyatin	Ambassador	10 April 1986	18 November 1991
Boris Pankin	Ambassador	19 November 1991	25 December 1991

Representatives of the Russian Federation to the United Kingdom (1991–present)

Name	Title	Appointment	Termination
Boris Pankin	Ambassador	25 December 1991	16 September 1993
Anatoly Adamishin	Ambassador	5 September 1994	6 June 1997
Yury Fokin [ru]	Ambassador	6 June 1997	20 January 2000
Grigory Karasin	Ambassador	6 March 2000	9 June 2005
Yuri Fedotov	Ambassador	9 June 2005	27 August 2010
Alexander Yakovenko	Ambassador	24 January 2011	26 August 2019
Andrey Kelin	Ambassador	5 November 2019

References

^ "Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Edinburgh, the United Kingdom". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia). Retrieved 30 October 2019.
^ "Andrei Kelin appointed as Russia's Ambassador to the UK". Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 5 November 2019. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
^ Bilainkin, George (1944). Maisky, Ten Years Ambassador. G. Allen & Unwin Limited. pp. 73–74.
^ Davison, Janet (21 May 2014). "Prince Charles and Vladimir Putin: Can royals wade into politics?". CBC News. King George V, who reigned from 1910 to 1936, was close to his lookalike cousin, Czar Nicholas II, but refused to meet a number of Soviet ambassadors following the revolution there. "He claimed to be unwell and [did] not receive the Soviet ambassador because he blamed the Bolshevik regime for the murder of his cousin, Czar Nicholas II and his family in 1918," says Harris.

http://rusemb.org.uk/ambassadors/

[1] "Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Edinburgh, the United Kingdom". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia). Retrieved 30 October 2019.

[em-2] "Andrei Kelin appointed as Russia's Ambassador to the UK". Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 5 November 2019. Retrieved 7 November 2019.

[3] Bilainkin, George (1944). Maisky, Ten Years Ambassador. G. Allen & Unwin Limited. pp. 73–74.

[4] Davison, Janet (21 May 2014). "Prince Charles and Vladimir Putin: Can royals wade into politics?". CBC News. King George V, who reigned from 1910 to 1936, was close to his lookalike cousin, Czar Nicholas II, but refused to meet a number of Soviet ambassadors following the revolution there. "He claimed to be unwell and [did] not receive the Soviet ambassador because he blamed the Bolshevik regime for the murder of his cousin, Czar Nicholas II and his family in 1918," says Harris.

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