By Enver Robelli
Interesting developments…
Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Aleksandr Darchiev, has died unexpectedly at the age of 66. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced the news without giving details about the cause or place of death.
Darchiev had been appointed ambassador in Washington in March 2025. He had previously served as ambassador to Canada and had worked for many years in Russian diplomacy in North America.
His death brings back memories of the case of Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, who died unexpectedly in New York on February 20, 2017, one day before his 65th birthday. According to Reuters, a U.S. official had said at the time that Churkin had suffered a heart attack.
In November 2016, Sergei Krivov, a security employee at the Russian consulate, also died in New York. His body was found in the consulate building with a head injury. Russian authorities had said the cause was a heart attack.
Another case was the death of Mikhail Lesin, a former minister under Vladimir Putin and founder of the television network RT. He was found dead in a hotel in Washington in 2015. American investigators concluded that he had died from multiple injuries caused by blows to the head and other parts of the body. Later, U.S. authorities announced that he had died from ethanol poisoning and that it was an accident.