page_title: John Beyrle
section_title: Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2008-2012)
hierarchical_section_title: John Beyrle / Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2008-2012)
caption_attribution_description: English: Ambassador John Beyrle (on the right) talks with Russian President Dimitri Medvedev, after presenting his credentials (September 18, 2008). Photo provided to Embassy by Russian Presidential Press Service.
context_page_description: John Ross Beyrle is an American diplomat. A career Foreign Service Officer and specialist in Russian and Eastern European affairs, he served as Ambassador of the United States to the Russian Federation from July 3, 2008 until January 10, 2012, and as Ambassador to Bulgaria from 2005 to 2008.
  Beyrle was Ambassador in Moscow during the "reset" of Russian-American relationship, which saw the signing of the New START arms control treaty, agreement on peaceful uses of nuclear energy, Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization, and liberalized visa formalities for American and Russian travelers.
  He retired from the State Department in July 2012 with the rank of Career Minister, the diplomatic equivalent of a three-star general. He serves on the Board of Directors of several non-profit foundations, including as Chairman of the U.S. Russia Foundation, and as an adviser and business consultant on Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and other countries of the former Soviet Union.
context_section_description: Ambassador Beyrle was nominated by President George W. Bush on May 13, 2008 to be the United States Ambassador to the Russian Federation, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 27. One month after his arrival in Moscow, Russia and Georgia fought the brief 2008 South Ossetia War.   On September 11 in an interview on the Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy he noted that the United States had warned the Georgian government not to respond to provocations and not to send troops into South Ossetia, and he criticized the Russian actions in Georgia, particularly the rapid recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
  After the election of President Barack Obama in November 2008, Beyrle took an active part in the new administration's efforts to "reset" the Russian-American relationship.    He helped organize and took part in the state visit of President Obama to Moscow in July 2009, and the reciprocal visit by President Medvedev to Washington and California in 2010.  He gave frequent media interviews and speeches in Russian to explain America's desire for better relations, including to university  audiences in Vladivostok, St. Petersburg, Nizhniy-Novgorod and Sochi.
    On U.S. Veterans Day in 2009, Ambassador Beyrle invited a large number of Russian World War II veterans to his residence, Spaso House, to highlight the wartime alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union. He presided over the return to Russia of a medallion belonging to Czar Nicholas II, which had been stolen from the Hermitage Museum in the 1990s and recovered by a joint operation of the Russian Ministry of Culture and Russian Prosecutor's office and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
  Beyrle was the first American Ambassador to Russia to use his own blog, in Russian, to speak directly to the Russian internet audience. On March 30, the day after the bombing in the Moscow Metro which killed thirty nine people, Beyrle laid flowers at the site of the bombing and used his blog to express his condolences.
  On October 29, 2010, Ambassador Beyrle celebrated the connections between American and Russian literature and culture by hosting an Enchanted Ball at Spaso House. The ball recalled the Spring Ball of 1935 held by Ambassador William Bullitt, when the house was decorated with live birds, a birch forest, and a real bear. One of the guests at the 1935 ball was writer Mikhail Bulgakov, who used elements of that ball as an inspiration for Woland's Ball in his novel Master and Margarita.
  During the tour of Ambassador Beyrle in Moscow, there was a notable improvement in the tone of Russian-American relations. The United States and Russia signed the START-2 agreement on the reduction of nuclear weapons, as well as agreement on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and an agreement reducing visa restrictions and providing better monitoring of adoptions.   After 15 years of negotiations, Russia finally became a member of the World Trade Organization.   Russia permitted the United States to supply its armed forces in Afghanistan via air and land transit.  Russian law enforcement agencies began cooperating more regularly with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The U.S. military carried out several joint military exercises with the Russian military, and U.S. aircraft took part in the Moscow air show. For the first time U.S. soldiers participated in the parade on Red Square marking the anniversary of the end of World War II.  Although serious differences remained over missile defense, the occupation of Georgian territory and human rights, the political relationship was less confrontational than it had been in previous years.
caption: Ambassador Beyrle with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, after the Ambassador presented his credentials (September 18, 2008)
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS-1D Mark III", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2008:09:18 13:50:48", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "246", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "8016", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "8128", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "15830", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "640", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:09:18 13:50:48", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:09:18 13:50:48", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "7", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "40", "EXIF SubSecTime": "26", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "26", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "26", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3888", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2592", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "144000/41", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "81000/23", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2"}