Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed Ivan Volynkin as Russian Ambassador to Turkmenistan. The relevant Decree was published today on the official Internet portal of legal information.

“To appoint Ivan Kirillovich Volynkin as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Turkmenistan,” the document says.

By another Decree, the President released Alexander Blokhin from his duties as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Turkmenistan. Blokhin has headed the Russian Embassy in Turkmenistan since 2011. In 2020, in honor of the 20th anniversary of Turkmen neutrality, Alexander Blokhin was awarded the anniversary medal Garaşsyz, Baky Bitarap Türkmenistan (“Independent, Permanently Neutral Turkmenistan”).

Previously, Ivan Volynkin served as director of the consular department of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The 60-year-old diplomat graduated from MGIMO in 1981 and has been working for the Foreign Ministry ever since. He worked in the foreign missions of the USSR and the Russian Federation in Yugoslavia, the USA, Serbia and Montenegro, Georgia and Macedonia. In 2009-2013, he was Assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov, Deputy Director of the General Secretariat (Department) of the Russian Foreign Ministry. In 2013-2018 he was the Russian Ambassador to Armenia.