List of ambassadors of Russia to France

The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the French Republic is the official representative of the President and the Government of the Russian Federation to the President and the Government of France.

Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the French Republic
Emblem of the Russian Foreign Ministry
Incumbent Aleksey Meshkov since 23 October 2017
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Embassy of Russia in Paris
Style	His Excellency The Honourable
Reports to	Minister of Foreign Affairs
Seat	Paris
Appointer	President of Russia
Term length	At the pleasure of the President
Website	Embassy of Russia in France

The ambassador and his staff work at large in the Embassy of Russia in France.[1] There are consulates general in Strasbourg and Marsailles, an honorary consul in Lyon, and a vice-consulate in Biarritz.[2][3][4][5] The post of Russian Ambassador to France is currently held by Aleksey Meshkov, incumbent since 23 October 2017.[6] The Russian ambassador to France is concurrently accredited as ambassador to Monaco, where there is an honorary consul general.[7]

History of diplomatic relations

Russian-French contacts began on August 9, 1717, when Hans Christoph Shleynits, the first Russian ambassador to France, was appointed by Tsar Peter I of Russia and presented his credentials to King Louis XV of France.[8] France responded by sending its first ambassador to Russia, Jacques de Campredon, in September 1721.[9] Since then, relations were fairly constant between the two countries, although they were severed and restored many times. Overall, relations between France and Russia have been very close, and French was even considered the unofficial second language of Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries.[10]

Relations between the two countries were severed in 1733 with the start of the War of the Polish Succession and resumed in 1738. Poor relations between the revolutionary government of France and the Russian Monarchy led to relations being severed in 1792. The Napoleonic Wars marked the start of new conflicts between Russia and France, and relations were not restored until the conclusion of the War of the Second Coalition between Russia and France in 1800. The War of the Third Coalition in 1805 led to the disruption of diplomatic relations once again, which were not restored until the signing of the Treaty of Paris on November 20, 1815. Russia and France conflicted over different views on the Revolutions of 1848 and the French support of revolutions in multinational countries. This led to the Crimean War on March 27, 1854, which ended with a Russian defeat on March 30, 1856.[11] Relations between the two countries improved after that, and remained uninterrupted until the October Revolution of 1917.[9]

Diplomatic relations between Russia and France
Russian Empire
August 5, 1717 – Establishment of diplomatic relations
1733 – Diplomatic relations broken off, War of the Polish Succession begins
1738 – Restoration of diplomatic relations, War of the Polish Succession ends
1748 – Diplomatic relations broken off, Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends War of the Austrian Succession
1755 – Restoration of diplomatic relations
1756 - Diplomatic Revolution, alliance for Seven Years' War
1799–1800 – War of the Second Coalition
1800 – Restoration of diplomatic relations
August 28, 1804 – Diplomatic relations broken off, War of the Third Coalition
June 26, 1807 – Restoration of diplomatic relations, Treaty of Tilsit
1812 – Diplomatic relations severed, French invasion of Russia
May 18, 1814 – Restoration of diplomatic relations, Treaty of Paris (1815)
January 23, 1854 – Diplomatic relations severed, Crimean War
March 18, 1856 – Restoration of diplomatic relations, Treaty of Paris (1856)
August 21, 1891 – Franco-Russian Alliance
1904 – Triple Entente formed
Soviet Union
October 26, 1917 – October Revolution, diplomatic relations severed
October 28, 1924 – Diplomatic relations established
May 2, 1935 – Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance
June 30, 1941 – Diplomatic relations severed, Operation Barbarossa
October 23, 1944 – Restoration of diplomatic relations
Russian Federation
February 7, 1992 – France recognizes the Russian Federation as successor to the USSR

French Prime Minister Édouard Herriot sent a telegram to Alexey Rykov, the President of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, on October 26, 1924, informing him of the French recognition of the establishment of the Soviet Union. When Germany declared war on the Soviet Union on June 30, 1941, the Vichy France government broke off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, but never officially entered a state of war. Relations were reestablished on October 23, 1944, with the Soviet recognition of the new Provisional Government of the French Republic. Since then, relations between the new nations remained unbroken, although they were strained at times during the Cold War.[9][12]

After the breakup of the Soviet Union, relations between France and the new Russian Federation were warm, and France recognized Russia as the successor of the USSR on February 7, 1992.[9][13]

List of representatives (1711 – present)

Representatives of the Tsardom of Russia to the Kingdom of France (1711 – 1721)

Name	Image	Title	Appointment	Termination	Notes
Grigory Volkov		Chargé d'affaires	1 July 1711	October 1712
Ivan Lefort		Chargé d'affaires	1716	1717
Hans Christoph Shleynits		Envoy	9 August 1717	1720
Vasily Dolgorukov		Envoy	25 September 1720	2 November 1721
Source: Diplomats of the Russian Empire- France[11]

Representatives of the Russian Empire to the Kingdom of France (1721 – 1792)

Name	Image	Title	Appointment	Termination	Notes
Vasily Dolgorukov		Envoy	2 November 1721	16 March 1722
Alexander Kurakin		Ambassador	4 May 1722	1724
Boris Kurakin		Ambassador	4 May 1722	17 October 1727
Alexander Kurakin		Ambassador	17 October 1727	11 July 1728
Aleksandr Golovkin		Chief of mission (before 1729) Envoy (after 1729)	1728	1731
Ernst Johann Graf von Münnich		Chargé d'affaires	July 1731	1733
Antiokh Kantemir		Envoy (before 11 December 1738) Ambassador (11 December 1738 - 24 September 1742) Envoy (after 24 September 1742)	18 April 1738	31 March 1744
Aleksey Gross		Chargé d'affaires (before 1745) Envoy (after 1745)	31 March 1744	June 1748
Fyodor Bekhteyev		Chargé d'affaires	1756	11 July 1757
Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin		Ambassador	10 August 1756	26 February 1760
Piotr Chernyshev		Ambassador	4 July 1760	26 July 1762
Sergei Saltykov		Ambassador	1762	August 1763
Dmitri Golitsyn		Ambassador	1762	1768
Nikolai Khotinsky		Chargé d'affaires	1767	1774
Ivan Baryatinskiy		Ambassador	August 1773	1785
Ivan Simolin		Ambassador	14 March 1784	7 February 1792	Recalled in 1792 Formally ambassador until his death on 19 September 1799
Source: Diplomats of the Russian Empire- France[11]

Representatives of the Russian Empire to the First French Empire (1800 – 1812)

Name	Image	Title	Appointment	Termination	Notes
Georg Magnus Sprengtporten		Special Envoy	1800	1800
Stepan Kolychyov		Ambassador	1800	1 July 1801
Arkady Morkov		Ambassador	1 July 1801	26 October 1803
Pyotr Ubri		Chargé d'affaires	15 November 1803	28 August 1804
Pyotr Ubri		Special Envoy	2 May 1806	9 July 1806
Pyotr Tolstoy		Ambassador	31 August 1807	19 October 1808
Nikolay Rumyantsev		Special Envoy	4 October 1808	2 February 1809
Grigory Gagarin		Chargé d'affaires	October 1808	November 1808
Alexander Kurakin		Ambassador	19 October 1808	10 November 1812
Source: Diplomats of the Russian Empire- France[11]

Representatives of the Russian Empire to the Kingdom of France (1814 – 1852)

Name	Image	Title	Appointment	Termination	Notes
Carlo Andrea Pozzo di Borgo		Envoy (before 17 February 1821 Ambassador (after 17 February 1821)	1 April 1814	5 January 1835
Pavel Medem		Chargé d'affaires	31 January 1835	1835
Pyotr Palen		Ambassador	11 March 1835	8 April 1851
Nikolai Kiselyov		Chargé d'affaires (before 8 April 1851) Special Envoy (8 April 1851 - 6 January 1853)	1851	2 December 1852

Representatives of the Russian Empire to the Second French Empire (1852 – 1870)

Name	Image	Title	Appointment	Termination	Notes
Nikolai Kiselyov		Special Envoy (8 April 1851 - 6 January 1853) Envoy (after 6 January 1853)	2 December 1852	13 January 1854
Philipp von Brunnow		Special Envoy	6 May 1856	29 January 1857
Pavel Kiselyov		Ambassador	11 July 1856	15 September 1862
Andrey Budberg		Ambassador	3 November 1862	10 April 1868
Ernest Stackelberg		Ambassador	25 April 1868	30 April 1870
Grigory Okunev		Chargé d'affaires	1870	1870
Philipp von Brunnow		Ambassador (nominal)	21 May 1870	28 November 1870
Source: Diplomats of the Russian Empire- France[11]

Representatives of the Russian Empire to the French Third Republic (1871 – 1917)

Name	Image	Title	Appointment	Termination	Notes
Nikolay Orlov		Ambassador	11 December 1871	8 February 1884
Arthur von Mohrenheim		Ambassador	8 February 1884	18 November 1897
Lev Urusov		Ambassador	19 November 1897	1904
Aleksandr Nelidov		Ambassador	1904	5 September 1910
Alexander Izvolsky		Ambassador	1910	3 March 1917
Source: Diplomats of the Russian Empire- France[11]

Representatives of the Russian Provisional Government to the French Third Republic (1917)

Name	Image	Title	Appointment	Termination	Notes
Alexander Izvolsky		Ambassador	March 1917	1917
Matvey Sevastopulo		Chargé d'affaires	1917	1917
Vasily Maklakov		Ambassador	1917	26 October 1917 (unaccredited after the October Revolution)

Representatives of the Soviet Union to the Republic of France (1924 - 1991)

Name	Image	Title	Appointment	Termination	Notes
Leonid Krasin		Plenipotentiary	14 November 1924	30 October 1925
Christian Rakovsky		Plenipotentiary	30 October 1925	21 October 1927
Valerian Dovgalevsky		Plenipotentiary	21 October 1927	14 July 1934
Marcel Rosenberg		Chargé d'affaires	1931	September 1934
Vladimir Potemkin		Plenipotentiary	25 November 1934	4 April 1937
Yakov Surits		Plenipotentiary	4 April 1937	29 March 1940
Aleksandr Bogomolov		Plenipotentiary (before 9 May 1941) Ambassador (after 9 May 1941)	29 March 1940	30 June 1941
Aleksandr Bogomolov		Representative to the French Committee of National Liberation until 23 October 1944 Ambassador after 23 October 1944	21 September 1943	25 March 1950
Aleksey Pavlov		Ambassador	25 April 1950	7 July 1953
Sergey Vinogradov		Ambassador	7 July 1953	24 March 1965
Valerian Zorin		Ambassador	24 March 1956	18 September 1971
Peter Abrassimov		Ambassador	18 September 1971	9 April 1973
Stepan Chervonenko		Ambassador	3 May 1973	20 January 1983
Yuli Vorontsov		Ambassador	20 January 1983	19 June 1986
Yakov Ryabov		Ambassador	19 June 1986	23 May 1990
Yuri Dubinin		Ambassador	23 May 1990	25 December 1991
Source: Reference History of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union[14]

Representatives of the Russian Federation to France (1991 - present)

Name	Image	Title	Appointment	Termination	Notes
Yuri Ryzhov		Ambassador	4 January 1992	18 December 1998
Nikolay Afanasevsky		Ambassador	4 January 1992	20 February 2002
Aleksandr Avdeyev		Ambassador	21 February 2002	16 March 2007
Alexander Orlov		Ambassador	14 October 2008	23 October 2017
Aleksey Meshkov		Ambassador	23 October 2017
Source:[13][15][16][17]

References

1. "Посольство Российской Федерации во Франции" (in Russian). Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia). Retrieved 20 October 2019.
2. "Генеральное консульство России в Страсбурге" (in Russian). Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia). Retrieved 20 October 2019.
3. "Генеральное консульство Российской Федерации в Марселе" (in Russian). Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia). Retrieved 20 October 2019.
4. "Russian Honorary Consulate in Lyon, France". embassypages.com. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
5. "Russian Honorary Vice Consulate in Biarritz, France". embassypages.com. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
6. "Алексей Юрьевич МЕШКОВ" (in Russian). Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia). Retrieved 20 October 2019.
7. "Консульство" (in Russian). Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia). Retrieved 20 October 2019.
8. Christopher Kenneth (September 2010). "Russia and France marking a special year in special diplomatic relations". The Russia Corporate World. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
9. "Franco-Russian relations" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2011-09-30. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
10. "Year of France in Russia takes off". Russia Today. February 25, 2010. Archived from the original on November 12, 2010. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
11. Vitaliy Solovyev. "France (Residence in Paris)" (in Russian). Retrieved 2011-01-30.
12. "Franco-Russian Alliance" (in Russian). Soviet Historical Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
13. Alexander Bocharnikov. "Alexander Orlov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Russia to the French Republic" (in Russian). Retrieved 2011-01-30.
14. "Authoritative representation – the USSR Embassy in France" (in Russian). Retrieved 2011-01-30.
15. "Alexander A. Avdeev" (in Russian). Retrieved 2011-01-30.
16. "Yuri Ryzhov" (in Russian). Presidium of Russian Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
17. "The Russian ambassador to Poland Nikolai Afanasievsky died in Warsaw" (in Russian). RIA Novosti. Retrieved 2011-01-30.