Alexander Darchiev, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, has died suddenly in Moscow at the age of 66, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday. The ministry said he “passed away suddenly” on 11 November, describing him as an “exceptional professional” and an “outstanding diplomat” who had served in one of the most demanding areas of Russian foreign policy.
No cause of death was given in the ministry’s statement. Its spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, later said Darchiev had been struggling with a chronic illness, and a source familiar with the matter told CNN he had left the embassy in Washington and returned to Moscow, where he was receiving treatment for a long-term illness. The precise cause of his death has not been officially disclosed.
Darchiev had served as ambassador to Washington since March 2025, appointed shortly after Donald Trump returned to the White House, as contacts between Moscow and Washington began to revive after years of deep freeze following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He succeeded Anatoly Antonov, whose departure in late 2024 had left the post vacant for about five months.
A career diplomat who joined the foreign service in 1992, Darchiev spent much of his career on the North American brief, heading the ministry’s North America department before serving as ambassador to Canada from 2014 to 2021. He was known for his blunt public criticism of the West, and his time in Washington coincided with a thaw in relations as Mr Trump opened bilateral talks with Moscow and scaled back aid to Ukraine.
His death comes on a sensitive day for US-Russian diplomacy: American-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi ended on Wednesday with agreement on a large prisoner exchange, but no breakthrough towards peace. The Foreign Ministry named no successor and said nothing about who would run the embassy in the meantime. Neither the White House nor the State Department had commented publicly by Wednesday evening.
Darchiev’s sudden death echoes the passing of another senior Russian diplomat nearly a decade ago. Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, died of cardiac arrest in 2017 aged 64, one day before his 65th birthday.
Sources: CNN — https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/11/europe/russian-ambassador-to-us-dies-intl ; Russian Foreign Ministry statement, as reported by CNN.
