Alexander Darchiev
Alexander Nikitich Darchiev is a Russian diplomat and historian who is serving as the Russian ambassador to the United States since 2025. He was formerly the ambassador to Canada from 2014 to 2021.
Biography
Alexander Darchiev was born on 14 May 1960 to the family of a diplomat in Hungary. He studied history at Moscow State University Faculty of History, graduating in 1983, and learned to speak fluent English and French. Darchiev was a fellow at the Institute for US and Canadian Studies at the Soviet Academy of Sciences during the 1980s, before joining the Russian Foreign Ministry in 1992, just after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He worked in its North America Department for his entire career.He was the head of a section in the North American Department of the Foreign Ministry in the mid-1990s, before he became an advisor at the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C. In 2003 he was made the deputy director of the North American Department. He later served as the deputy chief of mission of the Russian Embassy to the U.S. from 2005 to 2010 with the rank of minister-counselor. Darchiev was the Russian Ambassador to Canada from 24 October 2014 to 11 January 2021. Since 2016 he has held the Russian civil service rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. Following his tenure as ambassador to Canada, he became the Director of the North American Department.
After Anatoly Antonov was relieved of his duties as ambassador to the United States in October 2024, the following month it was reported that Darchiev has been nominated for the role, though he was not officially confirmed. On 27 February 2025, he led the Russian delegation in talks between the United States and Russia that took place in Istanbul, Turkey, which were a continuation of the earlier negotiations in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. They discussed the restoration of Russia–United States relations, including by removing restrictions on their embassies. At the meeting the U.S. delegation gave a note to the Russian side accepting Darchiev's appointment as Russian Ambassador to the United States. On 28 February, it was announced the Darchiev has been appointed as ambassador, and that this was accepted by the U.S. government. He was appointed by President Vladimir Putin on March 6, 2025 per decree № 121.