Alexander Darchiev, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, has died at the age of 66, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. In a statement, the ministry said he “passed away suddenly” on Wednesday, about a year and a half after taking up the Washington post.
Moscow has not released further details about the circumstances of his death.
Ministry praises veteran diplomat’s career
The ministry described Darchiev as an “outstanding diplomat, an experienced leader and a kind colleague.” It said he had worked “in one of the most critical areas of Russian foreign policy” and was a specialist in Russia-US relations.
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He was appointed last March, shortly after Donald Trump returned to the US presidency and several years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. When Russia launched its offensive in 2022, Darchiev had called the move a “necessary measure.”
Postings in Washington, Ottawa and Moscow
The state-owned TASS news agency reported that Darchiev was born into a diplomatic family. His father, Nikita Ivanovich Darchiev, was a diplomat and minister-counsellor at the Russian Embassy in Hungary.
He entered the diplomatic service in 1992, becoming first secretary and head of the North America department at the Foreign Ministry. He advised the Russian Embassy in the US in 1997 and later served as minister-counsellor from 2005 to 2010. He was Russia’s ambassador to Canada between 2014 and 2021.
He returned to the ministry’s North America department as director in 2010 and held the post again until last year.
