List of ambassadors of Russia to Venezuela

The ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Russia to Venezuela is the official representative of the president and the government of the Russian Federation to the president and the government of Venezuela.

The ambassador and his staff work at large in the Embassy of Russia in Caracas.^[1] The post of Russian ambassador to Venezuela is currently held by Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov, incumbent since 17 February 2020.^[2] The ambassador to Venezuela has dual accreditation as the non-resident ambassador to Haiti.^[2]

Relations between the forerunner states of the modern countries of Russia and Venezuela date back to the mid-nineteenth century, with Venezuela being the first Latin American country whose independence was recognized by the Russian Empire, on 17 February 1857.^[3] Official diplomatic relations were established on 14 March 1945, during the period of the Soviet Union.^[3] The first ambassador, Foma Trebin, was appointed on 28 July 1945.^[4] Relations were however broken off by the Soviet Union on 13 June 1952, in protest against the anti-left wing policies of the military junta in the run-up to the 1952 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election. They remained broken for the next eighteen years, during the presidency of Rómulo Betancourt, and the operation of the Betancourt Doctrine, which only recognised governments elected democratically. Relations were only restored on 16 April 1970, during the first presidency of Rafael Caldera, which saw the reversion of the Betancourt Doctrine, and the reopening of relations with socialist states.^[3][5] Viktor Likhachyov became the new ambassador, appointed on 2 October 1970. Representation continued through the late twentieth century. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Venezuela recognized the Russian Federation as its successor state The incumbent Soviet ambassador, Vladimir Goncharenko, continued as the Russian ambassador until 1992.^[5]

Diplomatic relations were established with the Dominican Republic towards the very end of the Soviet period, in 1991, and with Haiti in 1995. In both cases, the Russian ambassador to Venezuela was given dual accreditation to them. The practice of the ambassador to Venezuela having dual accreditation to the Dominican Republic came to an end with the appointment of Aleksey Seredin on 11 March 2025, as the first ambassador solely accredited to the Dominican Republic.^[6]