Alexander Orlov (diplomat)
Alexander Orlov | |
|---|---|
Александр Константинович Орлов | |
.jpg) Orlov in 2010 | |
| Ambassador of the Russian Federation to France | |
| In office 14 October 2008 – 23 October 2017 | |
| President | Dmitry Medvedev Vladimir Putin |
| Preceded by | Alexander Avdeev |
| Succeeded by | Alexey Meshkov |
| Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Monaco | |
| In office 1 December 2008 – 23 October 2017 | |
| President | Dmitry Medvedev Vladimir Putin |
| Preceded by | Alexander Avdeev |
| Succeeded by | Alexey Meshkov |
| Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the Council of Europe | |
| In office 31 May 2001 – 3 January 2007 | |
| President | Vladimir Putin |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 17 March 1948 Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Spouse(s) | Natalia Orlova |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater | Moscow State Institute of International Relations Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies |
| Profession | Diplomat |
Alexander Konstantinovich Orlov (Russian: Александр Константинович Орлов; born 17 March 1948), also rendered as Alexandre Orlov, is a Russian diplomat. He served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to France from 2008 to 2017, with concurrent accreditation to the Principality of Monaco from December 2008. He had previously been Permanent Representative of Russia to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg from 2001 to 2007. Since November 2017, he has served as Executive Secretary General of the Trianon Dialogue, the Franco-Russian civil-society forum launched by Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin in May 2017.[1][2]
Early life and education
Alexander Orlov was born on 17 March 1948 in Moscow into the family of the Soviet diplomat Konstantin Petrovich Orlov (1919–2001), who was at the time on assignment at the Soviet Embassy in France. As a result, Orlov spent the first three years of his life in Paris, where he learned to walk and speak. Between 1954 and 1958, his father was posted to Rome as cultural counsellor, and the young Orlov spent that period in Italy. Back in Moscow, the family lived in a communal apartment in Bolshoy Komsomolsky Lane.[3][4]
After graduating from secondary school No. 49 on 3rd Frunzenskaya Street with a gold medal in June 1966, Orlov entered the Faculty of International Economic Relations of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), where he specialised in French. He graduated in 1971 and went on to complete a doctoral programme at the Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1973, obtaining the degree of Candidate of Historical Sciences.[3][5]
Diplomatic career
Soviet period (1971–1991)
Orlov entered the Soviet diplomatic service in September 1971 and was almost immediately posted to the Soviet Embassy in France as a duty referent in the consular section, his first overseas assignment. He arrived in Paris on 13 September 1971, two days after the death of Nikita Khrushchev. He remained in Paris until January 1979.[6][7]
From January 1979 to July 1986, he worked in the First European Department of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow. In the early 1980s he took part in the Soviet-American negotiations on the limitation and reduction of strategic armaments held in Geneva. From 1986 to 1991 he served as political counsellor at the Soviet Embassy in France, where he accompanied Ambassador Yakov Ryabov on numerous official trips, including to Strasbourg in spring 1987.[3][8]
Russian Foreign Ministry (1991–2008)
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Orlov was appointed director of the First European Directorate of the Department of Europe of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1991 to 1993. He returned to Paris from 1993 to 1998 as Minister-Counsellor at the Russian Embassy. From 1998 to 2001 he served as director of the First European Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry.[3][9]
On 31 May 2001 he was appointed Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, a post he held until 3 January 2007. During this period he chaired the Ministers' Deputies when Russia held the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers from May to November 2006. He was elevated to the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary on 20 July 2005.[3][5][8] Following his return to Moscow in 2007, he headed the Department for Relations with Subjects of the Federation, Parliament and Public Associations of the Russian Foreign Ministry until October 2008.[9][10]
Ambassador to France and Monaco (2008–2017)
By presidential decree of 14 October 2008, Dmitry Medvedev appointed Orlov Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the French Republic, succeeding Alexander Avdeev, who had been appointed Russian Minister of Culture earlier that year. By a further decree of 1 December 2008, he was concurrently accredited to the Principality of Monaco. Orlov presented his letters of credence to French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Élysée Palace on 26 January 2009.[3][11]
On 29 June 2010, Orlov co-signed an op-ed in Le Monde with Tomasz Orłowski, the Polish ambassador to France, calling for Russian-Polish reconciliation following the rapprochement between Donald Tusk and Vladimir Putin after the death of Polish President Lech Kaczyński in the Smolensk air disaster.
On 15 October 2010, Orlov launched the international architectural competition for the construction of the new Russian Orthodox spiritual and cultural centre on the Quai Branly in Paris, which would later host the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. The completion of this project, inaugurated in October 2016 in the presence of Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky and Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, was widely regarded as one of the major achievements of his tenure.[12]
His ambassadorship coincided with significant turbulence in Franco-Russian relations, including the cancellation of the Mistral warships sale under President François Hollande and the postponement of a planned Putin visit to Paris in 2016. In a 2014 interview with the journal Outre-Terre, Orlov criticised the United States for the deterioration of bilateral ties and advocated the federalisation of Ukraine as a long-term solution to the post-Maidan crisis.[13] In an interview with CNews on 26 May 2017, on the eve of the Versailles meeting between Macron and Putin, he stressed that France remained "an important and privileged partner" of Russia, recalling that diplomatic relations between the two countries had been established at the time of Peter the Great's 1717 visit to France.[14]
He was relieved of his duties on 23 October 2017 by a presidential decree of Vladimir Putin and was succeeded in both posts by Alexey Meshkov.[15]
Trianon Dialogue and later activities
Since November 2017, Orlov has been Executive Secretary General of the Trianon Dialogue, a forum bringing together members of French and Russian civil society, established at the initiative of Presidents Macron and Putin during their meeting at Versailles on 29 May 2017. He works alongside the French co-secretary general, prefect Christian Leyrit, while the forum is co-chaired on the French side by former Ambassador Pierre Morel.[16]
He is also a member of the Leaders for Peace Foundation chaired by former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.[1]
Memoirs
In 2020, Orlov published a memoir, Un ambassadeur russe à Paris ("A Russian Ambassador in Paris"), co-written with the journalist Renaud Girard and prefaced by Hélène Carrère d'Encausse, the perpetual secretary of the Académie française. The book recounts his career and offers candid assessments of the four French presidents he dealt with in office: he describes Nicolas Sarkozy as "direct" and "pragmatic", François Hollande as "disappointing" and responsible for a deterioration of bilateral relations, and devotes critical pages to Sarkozy's role in the 2011 Libyan intervention.[6][17][18] A Russian-language version, Посол в Париже. Воспоминания ("Ambassador in Paris: Memoirs"), was published by Eksmo in 2021.[12]
Personal life
Orlov has been married twice. He has two sons and two daughters from his two marriages. In addition to Russian, he speaks French, Italian and English; he is regarded as one of the leading francophones in the Russian diplomatic service.[3][10]
Honours and awards
Russian Federation
- Order of Friendship (28 February 2008)[3]
- Honoured Worker of the Diplomatic Service of the Russian Federation
- Commendation of the President of the Russian Federation (27 November 2003)[3]
Russian Orthodox Church
- Order of Saint Sergius of Radonezh, 3rd class
Foreign honours
Monaco: Officer of the Order of Saint-Charles
Selected works
- Orlov, Alexandre; Renaud Girard (2020). Un ambassadeur russe à Paris (in français). Paris: Fayard. ISBN 978-2-213-71308-3. Search this book on
- Orlov, A. K. (2021). Посол в Париже. Воспоминания [Ambassador in Paris: Memoirs] (in русский). Moscow: Eksmo. Search this book on
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Orlov". Normandy for Peace. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ↑ "Alexandre Orlov" (in français). La Réf. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 "Орлов Александр Константинович" (in русский). Rus.team. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ↑ "Un ambassadeur russe à Paris : Alexandre Orlov" (in français). Conflits : Revue de Géopolitique. 20 December 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Александр Константинович Орлов: биография и семья" (in русский). People-Archive. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Gouraud, Jean-Louis. "Un ambassadeur russe à Paris" (in français). La Revue. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ↑ "Посол России во Франции Александр Орлов: Процедура выдачи виз упростилась" (in русский). Rossiyskaya Gazeta. 30 June 2009. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Orlov, Alexander. "Europe, our common home". Council of Europe. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Орлов Александр Константинович" (in русский). Vneshpol (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia). Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Орлов Александр Константинович: биография" (in русский). Rus.team. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ↑ "ОРЛОВ АЛЕКСАНДР КОНСТАНТИНОВИЧ назначен" (in русский). Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Книга Александра Орлова раскрывает секреты работы дипломата" (in русский). Rossiyskaya Gazeta. 7 December 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ↑ Kisling, Christina (2014). "Entretien avec Son Excellence, Monsieur Alexandre Orlov, ambassadeur de la Fédération de Russie en France" (in français). Outre-Terre, 2014/4 N° 41. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ↑ "Russian ambassador says Paris remains important partner for Moscow". TASS. 26 May 2017. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ↑ "Alexei Meshkov appointed Ambassador to France with dual accreditation to Monaco". President of Russia. 23 October 2017. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ↑ "Groupe France-Russie : Entretien sur le Dialogue de Trianon" (in français). Sénat de la République française. 13 December 2018. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ↑ "Un ambassadeur russe à Paris" (in français). Éditions Fayard. 22 October 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
- ↑ Boniface, Pascal (17 November 2020). "J'ai lu… Un ambassadeur russe à Paris d'Alexandre Orlov" (in français). IRIS. Retrieved 4 May 2026.
External links
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- Profile at La Réf Script error: The function "in_lang" does not exist.
- Author profile at Russia in Global Affairs Script error: The function "in_lang" does not exist.
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