Russian Ambassador to the US Alexander Darchiev Dies Suddenly at 66

Alexander Darchiev, Russia's ambassador to the United States, has died suddenly at the age of 66, Russia's Foreign Ministry announced on 11 November 2026. An ambassador is a country's senior diplomat stationed abroad, and Darchiev held that post in Washington.

According to The Guardian, the ministry's announcement confirmed the death on the same day.

Darchiev had been appointed to the Washington post in March 2025. Before that, he served as Russia's ambassador to Canada from 2021 to 2024, a period that ended when he was in his early sixties. Earlier in his career, from 2014 to 2020, he was director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's North America department, the unit within the ministry that focuses on the United States and Canada.

His career spanned several years of Moscow's diplomacy with Washington and Ottawa, two capitals with which Russia has had strained relations in recent years.