Russian Ambassador to US Dies, Foreign Ministry in Moscow Says

Gambiaj.com – (WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES) – Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Alexander Darchiev, has died aged 66, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

The ministry did not disclose the cause of Darchiev’s death. In a brief statement, it said that “an outstanding diplomat, experienced leader, kind colleague and mentor has passed away,” describing the late ambassador as a “professional of the highest order and a brilliant expert on American affairs.”

Darchiev replaced Anatoly Antonov as ambassador to the United States in early 2025.

A seasoned diplomat, Darchiev previously served at Russia’s Embassy in Washington in the late 2000s before holding positions in the Foreign Ministry.

He later spent six years as Russia’s ambassador to Canada and headed the ministry’s North American Department for the past four years.

Darchiev is a protegé of Putin aide Yury Ushakov, Boris Bondarev, a former Russian diplomat in Geneva who publicly resigned in protest of the invasion of Ukraine, told The Moscow Times last year.

Putin appointed Darchiev, known in the past for his public denunciations of the West, as ambassador to Washington in March 2025 to lead a rapprochement with the Trump administration that has rattled Ukraine and European countries.

In a memoir, John J. Sullivan, a U.S. ambassador to Russia under then-President Joe Biden, described Darchiev becoming “visibly enraged” during a meeting at the foreign ministry in Moscow, over remarks by Biden, who called Putin a war criminal.

“When I finished, he started screaming at me in a profane tirade that I should not come into the ministry with such a belligerent attitude,” Sullivan wrote.