LAGOS NOVEMBER 12TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Alexander Darchiev, died in Moscow aged 66, after struggling with a chronic illness, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
Darchiev “passed away suddenly,” the ministry said in a statement, describing him as an “exceptional professional.”
“Alexander Darchiev served in one of the most demanding areas of Russian foreign policy,” the ministry’s statement added. “We extend our deepest and most heartfelt condolences to Alexander Darchiev’s family and loved ones.”
The Russian ambassador had left the embassy in Washington, DC before returning to Moscow, where he was receiving treatment for a long-term illness, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
Darchiev, a veteran diplomat known for his stinging condemnations of the West, had served as ambassador to Washington since March 2025. His time in office was marked by a thawing of US-Russia relations as President Donald Trump opened bilateral talks with Moscow and scaled back aid to Ukraine.
In December 2022, Darchiev claimed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine earlier that year was a “necessary measure that thwarted a scenario of de facto genocide against Russians in the former Ukrainian territories,” repeating a unevidenced claim made by Moscow regarding Russian speakers in occupied parts of Ukraine as a pretext for its offensive. Speaking to Russian state news outlet TASS, the government official accused former US President Joe Biden’s administration of having “effectively refused to discuss Russia’s proposals regarding security guarantees” against the backdrop of NATO expansion.
A US State Department spokesperson told CNN they were aware of Darchiev’s death and offered condolences to his family and loved ones.
Darchiev previously headed the Russian Foreign Ministry’s North Atlantic Department in Washington, according to the Russian embassy in the US, as well as serving as Russia’s ambassador to Canada from 2014 to 2021.
Nearly a decade ago another Russian diplomat died suddenly aged 64. Vitaly Churkin, an ambassador to the UN, passed away following cardiac arrest in 2017, just one day before his 65th birthday.
The average life expectancy for a man in Russia is 68 years old, according to the World Bank.
CNN
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