| Alexander Yakovenko | |
| Order: | Ambassador of Russia to the United Kingdom |
| Term Start: | 7 January 2011 |
| Term End: | 26 August 2019 |
| President: | Dmitri Medvedev Vladimir Putin |
| Predecessor: | Yury Fedotov |
| Successor: | Andrey Kelin |
| Birth Name: | Alexander Vladimirovich Yakovenko |
| Birth Date: | 21 October 1954 |
| Birth Place: | Gomel, Belarusian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Native Name Lang: | ru |
Alexander Vladimirovich Yakovenko (Russian: Алекса́ндр Влади́мирович Якове́нко; born 21 October 1954) is a Russian diplomat. He served as the Ambassador of Russia to the United Kingdom between January 2011 and August 2019. Since August 2019, he has been rector of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is a former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia. While working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow, he was in charge of multilateral diplomacy (UN, UNESCO and other international organizations, economic and humanitarian cooperation, human rights, environmental cooperation, climate change, education, culture and sport issues). A graduate of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1976, he later gained a Doctor of Law degree. Yakovenko holds the diplomatic rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, and speaks Russian, English and French.
Yakovenko began his diplomatic career in 1976 and has held positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, including the Department of International Organizations, the Permanent Mission of the USSR to the United Nations in New York, the Foreign Policy Planning Department, the Department of International Scientific and Technical Cooperation, the Department of Security and Disarmament, the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to International Organizations in Vienna, and the Information and Press Department. He has participated in many sessions of the UN Security Council and General Assembly, the UNESCO General Conference, various OSCE forums, negotiations on conventional armed forces in Europe and confidence building measures, the IAEA Board of Governors meetings, the Russian-American Joint Commission on Economic and Technological Cooperation, and the G8 expert meetings. He headed the Russian delegation at the International Space Station negotiations (1993–1998).[1]
In January 2011, Yakovenko was appointed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to the post of Ambassador of Russia to the United Kingdom, replacing Yury Fedotov.
Yakovenko has written several comment and opinion pieces for British Daily Telegraph newspaper to clarify his diplomatic position. On 27 February 2019, he was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky.[2]
On 24 August 2019, a short note appeared on the website of the Russian Embassy in London stating that "Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Mr Alexander Yakovenko relinquished his duties and departed to Russia. Mr Ivan A. Volodin, Minister-Counsellor, acts as Chargé d'Affaires a.i."[3] On 26 August 2019, President Vladimir Putin relieved Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Alexander Yakovenko of his duties, with a relevant decree published on the official legal information portal.[4] It was announced on 28 August 2019 that he would become the new rector of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[5]