The ambassador of Russia to the Netherlands is the official representative of the president and the government of the Russian Federation to the king and the government of the Netherlands.
The ambassador and his staff work at large in the Russian Embassy in The Hague. The current Russian ambassador to the Netherlands is , incumbent since 5 December 2023. The ambassador is concurrently accredited as Russia's permanent representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
History of diplomatic relations
Tsardom of Russia
Contacts between the predecessor states of the Netherlands and Russia date back to trade expeditions around 1000 AD, with regular contact established by the reign of Ivan the Terrible (1547-1584), when Dutch merchants visted Arkhangelsk. In 1613, and were sent to the Netherlands to present the news of the accession of Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, and to request assistance in the Polish–Russian War. In 1646, Ilya Miloslavsky and visited as envoys of Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich. Temporary missions were exchanged throughout the Tsarist period, and in 1696, Tsar Peter I sent his Grand Embassy to Western Europe, nominally led by Franz Lefort, Fyodor Golovin and , and accompanied by Peter himself. The embassy reached the Netherlands by mid-August 1697, leaving in January 1698. Contacts were strengthened with the appointment of the first permanent representative to the Netherlands the following year, Andrey Matveyev serving as Russian envoy in The Hague from 1699 to 1712. A consulate was opened in Amsterdam on 16 April 1707, and Matveyev was succeeded in 1712 by Boris Kurakin, a noted diplomat who was ambassador during the establishment of the Russian Empire in 1721.
Imperial Russia Representatives continued to be exchanged between the two countries under Peter's successors, during the turbulent eighteenth century, with the first significant rupture occurring during the French Revolutionary Wars. The Dutch Republic was invaded by troops of the French First Republic in 1795, establishing the Batavian Republic, allied with France. Russia entered the War of the Second Coalition against France and its allies in late 1798, and in 1799, participated in the unsuccessful Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland. Relations were broken off during the war, but resumed after the signing of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. Hostilities between what was now the First French Empire under Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Russian Empire, resumed in 1805 with the War of the Third Coalition. The relative independence of what from 1806 was the Kingdom of Holland meant that diplomatic relations were maintained, until the Kingdom was formally annexed to the French Empire in 1810, a period known as the Incorporation. Relations were again suspended until the defeat of France in the War of the Sixth Coalition in 1814, after which relations were restored with the newly independent but shortlived Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands, and then its successor from 1815, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Envoys were thereafter exchanged between the two countries for the next hundred years, uninterrupted by the transition from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, following the Belgian Revolution in 1830 and the ratification of Belgian independence in 1839.
Soviet Union
The exchange of ambassadors continued into the twentieth century and during the First World War, including after the February Revolution brought an end to Imperial rule and established the Russian Provisional Government. Following the October Revolution which brought the Bolsheviks to power, the government of the Netherlands declined to recognise the new communist regime and relations were again broken off. Relations remained suspended throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and into the start of the Second World War. The Netherlands were invaded and then occupied from 1940, with a Dutch government-in-exile established in London. When Axis forces invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the USSR joined the Allied side. On 10 July 1942, the USSR established diplomatic relations with the Dutch government-in-exile, as part of the , with its ambassador, accredited until 1943, and succeeded by until 1945. With the restoration of the independent Dutch state following the war, Vasily Valkov was appointed the new representative. Relations subsequently cooled following Soviet support for the Indonesian National Revolution, and deteriorated further after a series of incidents involving ambassador Panteleimon Ponomarenko, ultimately leading to him being declared persona non grata in 1961. Relations improved during the later part of the Khrushchev Thaw, and ambassadors resumed being appointed in 1963.
Russian Federation Exchange of ambassadors continued throughout the rest of the existence of the Soviet Union. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Netherlands recognised the Russian Federation as its successor state. Incumbent Soviet ambassador Aleksandre Chikvaidze remained in post representing Russia until 1992, and since then ambassadors have continued to be exchanged between the two countries.
Representatives of Russia to the Netherlands (1699–present) Tsardom of Russia to the Dutch Republic (1699–1721) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesAndrey MatveyevMinister Plenipotentiary4 April 16991712Boris Kurakin17 October 17112 November 1721
Russian Empire to the Dutch Republic (1721–1795) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesBoris Kurakin2 November 172131 August 1725Envoy17251728Ya. VandenburgResident17281731Envoy27 July 173131 January 1759Alexander VorontsovMinister PlenipotentiaryOctober 1761February 1762Envoy17611764Alexander VorontsovMinister Plenipotentiary17641768Dmitri Golitsyn17681782Arkady MorkovSecond envoy before 1782Envoy after 178220 December 17811783Envoy17831793Mikhail NovikovChargé d'affaires17931795
Russian Empire to the Batavian Republic (1795–1806) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesEnvoy17971799War of the Second Coalition - Diplomatic relations interrupted (1799-1802)Gustav Ernst von StackelbergEnvoy1 January 18025 June 1806Karl GugbergActing Chargé d'affairesApril 1802September 1802
Russian Empire to the Kingdom of Holland (1806–1810) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesGustav Ernst von StackelbergEnvoy5 June 1806 11 November 1807Envoy3 February 180812 August 1810War of the Sixth Coalition - Diplomatic relations interrupted (1812-1814)
Russian Empire to the Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands (1814–1815) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesKarl Ludwig von PhullEnvoy19 May 181416 March 1815
Russian Empire to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815–1839) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesKarl Ludwig von PhullEnvoy16 March 18156 April 1821 Dmitry TatishchevEnvoy23 May 18215 February 1822Peter von MeyendorffChargé d'affaires20 November 18215 April 1824Envoy8 August 18235 April 1824Chargé d'affaires before 23 January 1826Envoy after 23 January 18265 April 18249 April 1832 Envoy9 April 1832 16 March 1837Frants MaltitsEnvoy16 March 183719 April 1839
Russian Empire to the Kingdom of the Netherlands (1839–1917) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesFrants MaltitsEnvoy19 April 18396 December 1853Sergey LomonosovEnvoy6 December 185313 October 1857Envoy23 October 185728 May 1866 Karl Knorring Envoy16 April 18672 January 1871Envoy6 March 18711 February 1884Pyotr KapnistEnvoy9 February 18847 June 1892Karl von StruveEnvoy28 July 18921905Envoy19051907Envoy19081912Envoy4 July 19123 March 1917
Russian Provisional Government to the Kingdom of the Netherlands (1917) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesGenrikh BakhChargé d'affairesMarch 191726 October 1917
Soviet Union to the Kingdom of the Netherlands (1942–1991) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesAmbassador12 January 194330 November 1943To the Dutch government-in-exile as part of the Credentials presented on 12 January 1943Ambassador30 November 19436 May 1945 To the Dutch government-in-exile as part of the Credentials presented on 24 February 1944 Vasily ValkovAmbassador23 June 194524 August 1949Credentials presented on 31 July 1945Chargé d'affairesDecember 1949December 1949Ambassador14 December 194929 July 1953Credentials presented on 17 March 1950 Ambassador29 July 1953 30 June 1959Credentials presented on 4 September 1953 Panteleimon PonomarenkoAmbassador30 June 195921 June 1962Credentials presented on 4 November 1959 Declared persona non grataIvan TugarinovAmbassador7 May 196310 October 1966Credentials presented on 29 May 1963 Vladimir LavrovAmbassador21 June 1967 20 April 1973Credentials presented on 6 July 1967Ambassador20 April 19731 February 1979Credentials presented on 2 May 1973 Vasily TolstikovAmbassador1 February 19793 June 1982Credentials presented on 23 February 1979Viktor BeletskyAmbassador3 June 198226 February 1985Credentials presented on 7 July 1982 Anatoly BlatovAmbassador26 February 19851 October 1988 Aleksandre ChikvaidzeAmbassador20 October 1988 25 December 1991
Russian Federation to the Kingdom of the Netherlands (1991–present) NameTitleAppointmentTerminationNotesAleksandre ChikvaidzeAmbassador25 December 199118 March 1992Leonid SkotnikovAmbassador18 March 199217 April 1998Ambassador17 April 199820 August 2003Kirill GevorgianAmbassador20 August 20035 November 2009Ambassador5 November 200915 September 2015Credentials presented on 14 January 2010Ambassador15 September 20155 December 2023 Credentials presented on 7 October 2015 Ambassador5 December 2023 Credentials presented on 31 January 2024
References