He has served in various diplomatic roles since the 1970s, and has been the incumbent Ambassador of Russia to the United Kingdom since November 2019.
He has held various posts in embassies in Europe, and took part in arms-limitation talks and then in the ministry's department of Pan-European Cooperation.
[2][3] His early work was in various positions in the ministry, and in overseas embassies, including the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Belgium.
[3] He was part of the Soviet delegation to the Geneva talks in the early 1980s, ultimately resulting in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987.
[4] On 7 June 2011, he took up the post of Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, succeeding Anvar Azimov.