Yuri Ushakov

Yuri Ushakov began his diplomatic career in Scandinavia. Born in Moscow in 1947, he graduated from MGIMO in 1970 and joined the Soviet embassy in Denmark as an interpreter and referent. He later worked on Scandinavian affairs in Moscow, earned a postgraduate history degree, and returned to Copenhagen as minister-counselor in 1986–1992. ¹

After the Soviet collapse he headed Russia’s department for European cooperation, represented the country at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and became deputy foreign minister. Appointed ambassador to the United States in December 1998, he also served as Russia’s observer to the Organization of American States. On 31 January 2002 he and Secretary of State Colin Powell signed the protocol exchanging ratifications of a mutual legal assistance treaty. It established a basis for cooperation in criminal investigations and the seizure or freezing of criminal and terrorist assets. ^{1, 2}

After Washington, Ushakov became deputy head of the Russian government’s staff and, in May 2012, the president’s foreign policy aide. In February 2025 he and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met senior American officials in Riyadh in the highest level bilateral talks since Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. ^{3, 4}