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 Sergey Vershinin as of February 20 2026.
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, , 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) Tsardom of Russia to the Ottoman Empire (1702–1721) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesPyotr Tolstoy17025 April 1712March 171320 November 1710November 1712171417181721
Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire (1721–1917) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotes17211723Ivan NeplyuyevResidentJanuary 1721173417311732Resident17391741Alexander Rumyantsev16 May 17401741Resident174129 July 1745Resident17468 November 1750Chargé d'affaires (until 1752)Resident (after 1752)175125 September 1768Envoy175517559 August 176325 September 1768September 17741775Nikolai Repnin1775177523 November 177521 January 1781Yakov Bulgakov17811787Dmitry TatishchevJanuary 1792May 1792Mikhail Kutuzov17921794Viktor Kochubey179317971793February 179417981802180218121806181618161821Dmitry Dashkov18211823Matvey Minchaki182318273 February 18274 December 1827Alexey Orlov18291830Signed the Treaty of Adrianople in 182918291843Pyotr Rikman18371838Vladimir Titov18401843184218531852185318561859Aleksey Lobanov-Rostovsky1858186318621864Nikolay Ignatyev18641877Aleksey Lobanov-Rostovsky1878187918791882Aleksandr Nelidov188218971 July 1897190925 May 19092 March 1912Mikhail von Giers191220 October 1914
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to the Ottoman Empire (1919–1923) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesA. A. KistyakovskyDiplomatic representative21 July 19191920Shalva EliavaAuthorized representativeJuly 1920Appointed, did not take up postYan Upmal-AngarskyChargé d'affaires4 October 1920December 1920Polikarp MdivaniAuthorized representative19 February 1921May 1921Authorized representative31 May 19215 January 1922Semyon AralovAuthorized representative5 January 192227 April 1923Ottoman sultanate abolished on 1 November 1922Marcel RosenbergChargé d'affaires19231923Ambassador14 June 192323 July 1923
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to the Republic of Turkey (1923–1991) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesDiplomatic representative23 July 192319 June 1934Republic of Turkey formed on 29 October 1923Lev KarakhanDiplomatic representative29 June 19347 May 1937Diplomatic representative7 May 193725 November 1937Diplomatic representative3 April 193817 September 1940Diplomatic representative (before 9 May 1941)Ambassador (after 9 May 1941)17 September 194024 February 1948Ambassador24 February 194819 January 1954Boris PodtserobAmbassador19 January 195424 February 1957Ambassador24 February 195719 May 1966Andrey SmirnovAmbassador19 May 19666 January 1969Ambassador28 January 196923 December 1974Aleksei RodionovAmbassador23 December 197431 October 1983Vladimir LavrovAmbassador31 October 19833 July 1987Ambassador3 July 198725 December 1991
Russian Federation to the Republic of Turkey (1991–present) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesAmbassador25 December 19916 August 1994Ambassador13 September 199430 June 1998Ambassador30 June 199827 February 2003Ambassador27 February 200331 January 2007Vladimir IvanovskyAmbassador31 January 200712 July 2013Andrei KarlovAmbassador12 July 201319 December 2016AssassinatedAlexei YerkhovAmbassador19 June 20175 September 2025Aleksey IvanovChargé d'affaires5 September 202525 March 2026Ambassador20 February 2026
See also List of ambassadors of Turkey to Russia Russia–Turkey relations References