# List of ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Russia

The ambassador of the United Kingdom to Russia (Russian: Британский Посол в России) is the United Kingdom's foremost diplomatic representative in the Russian Federation and head of the UK's diplomatic mission in Russia. The official title is His Britannic Majesty's Ambassador to the Russian Federation.
Between 1844 and 1860 the status of the head of mission in Saint Petersburg was reduced from Ambassador to Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. The capital of Russia, and later of the Soviet Union (from 1922 to 1991), moved to Moscow in 1918.

## List of heads of mission

For the envoys to Russia from the Court of St James's before the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, see List of ambassadors of the Kingdom of England to Russia (for the period until 1707) and List of ambassadors of Great Britain to Russia (for the years 1707 to 1800).

### Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary

    1800-1801: Diplomatic Relations were suspended during the Second League of Armed Neutrality.
* 1801–1802: The Lord St Helens
* 1802–1804: Sir John Borlase Warren, Bt
* 1804–1806: Lord Granville Leveson-Gower
* 1805–1806: The Lord Cathcart
* 1807: Marquess of Douglas and Clydesdale Special Mission
* 1807: Lord Granville Leveson-Gower (again)
* 1807–1812: diplomatic relations suspended following Treaty of Tilsit
* 1812: Edward Thornton Plenipotentiary to negotiate at Stockholm
* 1812–1820: The Viscount Cathcart (created Earl Cathcart while in post in 1814)
* 1820–1825: Sir Charles Bagot
** 1820–1824: Hon. Frederick Cathcart Minister Plenipotentiary ad interim
** 1824–1825: Edward Michael Ward Minister Plenipotentiary ad interim
* 1825–1826: The Viscount Strangford
** 1825–1828 : Edward Cromwell Disbrowe Minister Plenipotentiary ad interim
* 1828–1832: Sir William à Court, Bt
** 1828–1832: Hon. William Temple Minister Plenipotentiary ad interim
* 1832–1833: Sir Stratford Canning (nominally ambassador, but did not go)
** 1832–1835: Hon. John Duncan Bligh Minister Plenipotentiary ad interim
* 1835–1837: The Earl of Durham
* 1837–1838: John Ralph Milbanke Minister Plenipotentiary ad interim
* 1838–1841: The Marquess of Clanricarde
* 1841–1844: The Lord Stuart de Rothesay

### Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary

* 1844–1851 : John Bloomfield (succeeded as Baron Bloomfield while in post in 1846)
* 1851–1854 : Sir George Hamilton Seymour
* 1854–1856: No representation due to the Crimean War
* 1856–1858 : The Lord Wodehouse
* 1858–1860 : Sir John Crampton, Bt

### Ambassadors

| Name | Tenure begin | Tenure end | British monarch | Russian monarch/leader |
| Sir John Crampton, Bt | 1860 | 1861 | Queen Victoria | Emperor Alexander II |
| The Lord Napier | 1861 | 1864 | Queen Victoria | Emperor Alexander II |
| Sir Andrew Buchanan, Bt | 1864 | 1867 | Queen Victoria | Emperor Alexander II |
| The Earl Vane | 1867 | 1871 | Queen Victoria | Emperor Alexander II |
| Lord Augustus Loftus | 1871 | 1879 | Queen Victoria | Emperor Alexander II |
| The Earl of Dufferin | 1879 | 1881 | Queen Victoria | Emperor Alexander II |
| Sir Edward Thornton | 1881 | 1884 | Queen Victoria | Emperor Alexander III |
| Sir Robert Morier | 1884 | 1893 | Queen Victoria | Emperor Alexander III |
| Sir Frank Lascelles | 1894 | 1895 | Queen Victoria | Emperor Nicholas II→ Emperor Michael II |
| Sir Nicholas Roderick O'Conor | 1895 | 1898 | Queen Victoria | Emperor Nicholas II→ Emperor Michael II |
| Sir Charles Stewart Scott | 1898 | 1904 | Queen Victoria | Emperor Nicholas II→ Emperor Michael II |
| Sir Charles Hardinge | 1904 | 1906 | King Edward VII | Emperor Nicholas II→ Emperor Michael II |
| Sir Arthur Nicolson, Bt | 1906 | 1910 | King Edward VII | Emperor Nicholas II→ Emperor Michael II |
| Sir George Buchanan | 1910 | 1918 | King George V→ King Edward VIII→ King George VI | Emperor Nicholas II→ Emperor Michael II |
| no representation from 26 December 1918 | 1918 | 1924 | King George V→ King Edward VIII→ King George VI | Vladimir Lenin |
| Sir Robert MacLeod Hodgson | 1924 | 1927 | King George V→ King Edward VIII→ King George VI | Joseph Stalin |
| no representation following a crisis in 1927 | 1927 | 1929 | King George V→ King Edward VIII→ King George VI | Joseph Stalin |
| Sir Esmond Ovey | 1929 | 1933 | King George V→ King Edward VIII→ King George VI | Joseph Stalin |
| The Viscount Chilston | 1933 | 1939 | | Joseph Stalin |
| Sir William Seeds | 1939 | 1940 | King George VI | Joseph Stalin |
| Hon. Sir Stafford Cripps | 1940 | 1942 | King George VI | Joseph Stalin |
| Sir Archibald Clark Kerr | 1942 | 1946 | King George VI | Joseph Stalin |
| Sir Maurice Peterson | 1946 | 1949 | King George VI | Joseph Stalin |
| Sir David Kelly | 1949 | 1951 | King George VI | Joseph Stalin |
| Sir Alvary Gascoigne | 1951 | 1953 | King George VI | Joseph Stalin |
| Sir William Hayter | 1953 | 1957 | Queen Elizabeth II | Georgy Malenkov→ Nikita Khrushchev |
| Sir Patrick Reilly | 1957 | 1960 | Queen Elizabeth II | Nikita Khrushchev |
| Sir Frank Roberts | 1960 | 1962 | Queen Elizabeth II | Nikita Khrushchev |
| Sir Humphrey Trevelyan | 1962 | 1965 | Queen Elizabeth II | Nikita Khrushchev |
| Sir Geoffrey Harrison | 1965 | 1968 | Queen Elizabeth II | Leonid Brezhnev |
| Sir Duncan Wilson | 1968 | 1971 | Queen Elizabeth II | Leonid Brezhnev |
| Sir John Killick | 1971 | 1973 | Queen Elizabeth II | Leonid Brezhnev |
| Sir Terence Garvey | 1973 | 1976 | Queen Elizabeth II | Leonid Brezhnev |
| Sir Howard Smith | 1976 | 1978 | Queen Elizabeth II | Leonid Brezhnev |
| Sir Curtis Keeble | 1978 | 1982 | Queen Elizabeth II | Leonid Brezhnev |
| Sir Iain Sutherland | 1982 | 1985 | Queen Elizabeth II | Yuri Andropov→ Konstantin Chernenko→ Mikhail Gorbachev |
| Sir Bryan Cartledge | 1985 | 1988 | Queen Elizabeth II | Mikhail Gorbachev |
| Sir Rodric Braithwaite | 1988 | 1992 | Queen Elizabeth II | Mikhail Gorbachev |
| Sir Brian Fall | 1992 | 1995 | Queen Elizabeth II | Boris Yeltsin |
| Sir Andrew Wood | 1995 | 2000 | Queen Elizabeth II | Boris Yeltsin |
| Sir Roderic Lyne | 2000 | 2004 | Queen Elizabeth II | Vladimir Putin |
| Sir Anthony Brenton | 2004 | 2008 | Queen Elizabeth II | Vladimir Putin |
| Dame Anne Pringle | 2008 | 2011 | Queen Elizabeth II | Dmitry Medvedev |
| Sir Tim Barrow | 2011 | 2015 | Queen Elizabeth II | Dmitry Medvedev→ Vladimir Putin |
| Sir Laurie Bristow | 2016 | 2020 | Queen Elizabeth II | Vladimir Putin |
| Dame Deborah Bronnert | January 2020 | 2023 | Queen Elizabeth II→ King Charles III | Vladimir Putin |
| Nigel Casey | November 2023 | — | King Charles III | Vladimir Putin |