# List of ambassadors of Russia to Turkey

The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Turkey is the official representative of the President and the Government of Russia to the President and the Government of Turkey.
The ambassador and his staff work at large in the Embassy of Russia in Ankara. There are consulates general in Istanbul, Trabzon and Antalya, and an honorary consul based in İzmir.
The post of Russian Ambassador to Turkey is currently held by Alexei Yerkhov, incumbent since 19 June 2017.

## History of diplomatic relations

Diplomatic relations between the antecedent states of Russia and Turkey date back to the fifteenth century. An early Russian embassy was sent to Constantinople in the mid-1490s, during the reign of Ivan III of Russia. Representatives continued to be exchanged intermittently during the period of the Tsardom of Russia, and after the declaration of the Russian Empire in 1721. Relations were periodically suspended during periods of conflict, and finally came to a close in 1914 with the Ottoman entry into the First World War on the side of the Triple Alliance. During the war, the Russian Revolution toppled the tsar and brought an end to the empire. Relations were resumed and gradually strengthened between the Ottomans and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1919 onwards, and survived the abolition of the Ottoman sultanate in 1922 and the creation of the Republic of Turkey the following year. Meanwhile the Soviet Union had been established that same year. Letters were exchanged between Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Georgy Chicherin, with the official date for the establishment of diplomatic relations being 3 June 1920, the date of Chicherin's letter. The two states remained in diplomatic contact for the remainder of the existence of the Soviet Union.
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Turkey recognised the Russian Federation as the successor state of the USSR, and the incumbent Soviet ambassador, Albert Chernyshyov [ru], continued as the Russian ambassador to Turkey until 1994. Diplomatic relations fluctuated during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, with tensions rising during the Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War, during which Turkey shot down a Russian jetfighter in 2015. Relations were normalised in the aftermath, though in 2016 the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was assassinated by an off-duty Turkish policeman. He became the fourth Russian ambassador to be killed while in post, and the first since the Soviet ambassador to Poland Pyotr Voykov was assassinated in Warsaw in 1927.

## List of representatives (1702–1721)
### Representatives of the Tsardom of Russia to the Ottoman Empire (1702–1721)

| Name | Title | Appointment | Termination | Notes |
| Pyotr Tolstoy | | 1702 5 April 1712 March 1713 | 20 November 1710 November 1712 1714 | |
| Aleksey Dashkov [ru] | | 1718 | 1721 | |

### Representatives of the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire (1721–1917)

| Name | Title | Appointment | Termination | Notes |
| Aleksey Dashkov [ru] | | 1721 | 1723 | |
| Ivan Neplyuyev | Resident | January 1721 | 1734 | |
| Ivan Shcherbatov [ru] | | 1731 | 1732 | |
| Aleksey Veshnyakov [ru] | Resident | 1739 | 1741 | |
| Alexander Rumyantsev | | 16 May 1740 | 1741 | |
| Aleksey Veshnyakov [ru] | Resident | 1741 | 29 July 1745 | |
| Adrian Neplyuyev [ru] | Resident | 1746 | 8 November 1750 | |
| Aleksey Obreskov [ru] | Chargé d'affaires (until 1752) Resident (after 1752) | 1751 | 25 September 1768 | |
| Sergey Dolgorukov [ru] | Envoy | 1755 | 1755 | |
| Pavel Levashov [ru] | | 9 August 1763 | 25 September 1768 | |
| Christopher Peterson [ru] | | September 1774 | 1775 | |
| Nikolai Repnin | | 1775 | 1775 | |
| Aleksandr Stakhiev [ru] | | 23 November 1775 | 21 January 1781 | |
| Yakov Bulgakov | | 1781 | 1787 | |
| Dmitry Tatishchev | | January 1792 | May 1792 | |
| Mikhail Kutuzov | | 1792 | 1794 | |
| Viktor Kochubey | | 1793 | 1797 | |
| Aleksandr Khvostov [ru] | | 1793 | February 1794 | |
| Vasily Tomara [ru] | | 1798 | 1802 | |
| Andrey Italinsky [ru] | | 1802 1812 | 1806 1816 | |
| Grigory Strogonov [ru] | | 1816 | 1821 | |
| Dmitry Dashkov | | 1821 | 1823 | |
| Matvey Minchaki | | 1823 | 1827 | |
| Aleksandr Riboper [ru] | | 3 February 1827 | 4 December 1827 | |
| Alexey Orlov | | 1829 | 1830 | Signed the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829 |
| Apollinary Butenyov [ru] | | 1829 | 1843 | |
| Pyotr Rikman | | 1837 | 1838 | |
| Vladimir Titov | | 1840 1843 | 1842 1853 | |
| Aleksandr Ozerov [ru] | | 1852 | 1853 | |
| Apollinary Butenyov [ru] | | 1856 | 1859 | |
| Aleksey Lobanov-Rostovsky | | 1858 | 1863 | |
| Yevgeny Novikov [ru] | | 1862 | 1864 | |
| Nikolay Ignatyev | | 1864 | 1877 | |
| Aleksey Lobanov-Rostovsky | | 1878 | 1879 | |
| Yevgeny Novikov [ru] | | 1879 | 1882 | |
| Aleksandr Nelidov | | 1882 | 1897 | |
| Ivan Zinoviev [ru] | | 1 July 1897 | 1909 | |
| Nikolai Charykov [ru] | | 25 May 1909 | 2 March 1912 | |
| Mikhail von Giers | | 1912 | 20 October 1914 | |

### Representatives of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to the Ottoman Empire (1919–1923)

| Name | Title | Appointment | Termination | Notes |
| A. A. Kistyakovsky | Diplomatic representative | 21 July 1919 | 1920 | |
| Shalva Eliava | Authorized representative | July 1920 | | Appointed, did not take up post |
| Yan Upmal-Angarsky | Chargé d'affaires | 4 October 1920 | December 1920 | |
| Polikarp Mdivani | Authorized representative | 19 February 1921 | May 1921 | |
| Sergey Natsarenus [ru] | Authorized representative | 31 May 1921 | 5 January 1922 | |
| Semyon Aralov | Authorized representative | 5 January 1922 | 27 April 1923 | Ottoman sultanate abolished on 1 November 1922 |
| Marcel Rosenberg | Chargé d'affaires | 1923 | 1923 | |
| Yakov Surits [ru] | Ambassador | 14 June 1923 | 23 July 1923 | |

### Representatives of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to the Republic of Turkey (1923–1991)

| Name | Title | Appointment | Termination | Notes |
| Yakov Surits [ru] | Diplomatic representative | 23 July 1923 | 19 June 1934 | Republic of Turkey formed on 29 October 1923 |
| Lev Karakhan | Diplomatic representative | 29 June 1934 | 7 May 1937 | |
| Mikhail Karsky [ru] | Diplomatic representative | 7 May 1937 | 25 November 1937 | |
| Aleksey Terentyev [ru] | Diplomatic representative | 3 April 1938 | 17 September 1940 | |
| Sergey Vinogradov [ru] | Diplomatic representative (before 9 May 1941) Ambassador (after 9 May 1941) | 17 September 1940 | 24 February 1948 | |
| Aleksandr Lavrishchev [ru] | Ambassador | 24 February 1948 | 19 January 1954 | |
| Boris Podtserob | Ambassador | 19 January 1954 | 24 February 1957 | |
| Nikita Ryzhov [ru] | Ambassador | 24 February 1957 | 19 May 1966 | |
| Andrey Smirnov | Ambassador | 19 May 1966 | 6 January 1969 | |
| Vasily Grubyakov [ru] | Ambassador | 28 January 1969 | 23 December 1974 | |
| Aleksei Rodionov | Ambassador | 23 December 1974 | 31 October 1983 | |
| Vladimir Lavrov | Ambassador | 31 October 1983 | 3 July 1987 | |
| Albert Chernyshyov [ru] | Ambassador | 3 July 1987 | 25 December 1991 | |

### Representatives of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Turkey (1991–present)

| Name | Title | Appointment | Termination | Notes |
| Albert Chernyshyov [ru] | Ambassador | 25 December 1991 | 6 August 1994 | |
| Vadim Kuznetsov [ru] | Ambassador | 13 September 1994 | 30 June 1998 | |
| Aleksandr Lebedev [ru] | Ambassador | 30 June 1998 | 27 February 2003 | |
| Pyotr Stegny [ru] | Ambassador | 27 February 2003 | 31 January 2007 | |
| Vladimir Ivanovsky | Ambassador | 31 January 2007 | 12 July 2013 | |
| Andrei Karlov | Ambassador | 12 July 2013 | 19 December 2016 | Assassinated |
| Alexei Yerkhov | Ambassador | 19 June 2017 | | |