MOSCOW — Alexander Darchiev, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, died suddenly on Wednesday at 66 in Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, naming no successor.
“The Russian Foreign Ministry announces with profound sorrow that Alexander Darchiev, Ambassador of Russia to the USA, passed away suddenly on November 11, aged 66,” the ministry posted on X. A fuller statement on its Telegram channel called him an outstanding diplomat and an experienced leader.
The ministry described Darchiev as an exceptional professional.
“Alexander Darchiev served in one of the most demanding areas of Russian foreign policy,”
“We extend our deepest and most heartfelt condolences to Alexander Darchiev’s family and loved ones,” the statement said.
Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a separate statement that Darchiev died in Moscow from an unspecified chronic illness. CNN reported that he had left the Washington embassy and returned to Moscow, where he was receiving treatment for a long-term illness.
Sent to Washington to rebuild ties
President Vladimir Putin appointed Darchiev ambassador to Washington on March 6, 2025, succeeding Anatoly Antonov. Reuters reported that Putin picked the veteran diplomat to lead a rapprochement with the Trump administration, a turn that rattled Ukraine and European countries.
In June 2025, after presenting his credentials, Darchiev told President Donald Trump that he would work to restore relations, Reuters reported at the time.
A career spent on North America
Darchiev was born on May 14, 1960, in Budapest, Hungary, to a family of diplomats, and studied history at Moscow State University. He joined the Russian Foreign Ministry in 1992 and spent his career on North America, serving as minister-counselor at the Russian Embassy in Washington from 2005 to 2010 and later heading the ministry’s North America department.
He was Russia’s ambassador to Canada from Oct. 24, 2014, to Jan. 11, 2021. Reuters described him as a veteran diplomat known in the past for his public denunciations of the West.
The announcement came on the day Russia and Ukraine agreed a large exchange of prisoners of war at U.S.-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi. U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are set to travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet Putin, according to The Associated Press.
The ministry’s statement did not give a date for his funeral or say who would head the embassy in Washington in the meantime.