[1] In 1525 Russian envoys Ivan Zasekin-Yaroslavsky and Semyon Borisov presented their credentials to Charles; they brought news of the discovery of the Americas to Muscovy.

[1][3] Regular embassies of the two countries were established by Peter I of Russia and Philip V of Spain in 1722; in 1723, the Russian Empire also opened a consulate in Cádiz.

While Russian intelligentsia commented favorably regarding colonial rebels during the decolonization of the Americas, Tsar Alexander I (1777-1825) supported the efforts to suppress rebellion by Spain's King Ferdinand VII (1784-1833).

[7] During the Russian Revolution, Alfonso XIII attempted the exfiltration of the Romanov family from Russia to Spain after the abdication of Nicholas II.

[8] Ambassador Marsel Rosenberg (1896–1938), his adviser and successor Leon Gaikis (1898–1937), and Consul-general Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko (1883–1938) arrived in Madrid in 1936, when Spanish Civil War was already underway.

During World War II the Blue Division of Spanish volunteers in the Wehrmacht fought against the Soviet Red Army on the Eastern Front until Francisco Franco removed them.

Spain's relations with the Soviets after World War II were described as "the worst, though hardly the most problematic",[10] culminating in Nikita Khrushchev's speech against Franco's regime in the United Nations General Assembly on October 1, 1960 and Franco's ban on the Spain vs. USSR game of the 1960 European Nations' Cup scheduled earlier in the same year.

This office, staffed by professional diplomats, and headed by Sergey Bogomolov, who relocated to Madrid from Paris, doubled as the de facto Soviet consulate.

Relations of this period were not exactly friendly, marred with mutual expulsion of alleged spies operating under diplomatic immunity;[15] things got worse when Spain was admitted into NATO in 1981, an act regarded by the USSR as a "violation of Soviet interests".

[18] After Bogomolov moved up to a senior position in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1978, he was replaced by Yuri Dubinin, who steered Soviet policy in Spain through the last phase of the Cold War, until 1986.

The land lot at 155, Calle de Velázquez, was provided to the Soviets in 1980, but was loaded with zoning regulations limiting building height to 6 meters, presence of Spanish Armed Forces cables running underground and a gypsy squat town sprawling above – these obstacles held off construction for years.

There were museum exhibition exchanges and several visits between the two countries' leaders including Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and Spanish King Juan Carlos I.

They dealt with the issue of Kosovo's independence from Serbia, Spain's chairmanship of the European Union (EU) in 2010, and foreign energy policy.

[30] In December 2000 the relations were strained by Spain' refusal to extradite fugitive banker and media executive Vladimir Gusinsky.

Of this, many evidence was recently provided, ranging from the inauguration at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, of an exhibition of works by Pablo Picasso to the agreement to create an alliance between eight public universities in the two countries.

[citation needed] The Spanish monarch, Felipe VI, launching a Europeanist message in the face of the European Parliament elections held in May, defended Russia's "key" role for economic prosperity.

[citation needed] The deputy governor of Moscow Oblast, Vadim Jromov, said, in exclusive statements to The Diplomat, that there are several areas of cooperation between Russia and Spain “very broadly favorable to both” and "we consider that the business world has nothing to do with sanctions and we will continue to support friendly relations between Spain and Russia, which are already hundreds of years old and are not going to be changed by particular decisions taken at any given time”.

"[citation needed] In 2020, the representative of Russian diplomacy said in the margins of the 11th edition of the Gaidar Forum to ignore whether contacts have already been established between Moscow and the new Spanish Government, and assured that Russia is interested in "deepening the traditional friendly relations and of association "with Spain.

[7] Spain, along with rest of the European Union (EU) member states, positioned against Russia during the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests and for the arrest of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

[35] In light of the EU sanctions, Spanish authorities started to impound a number of superyachts believed to belong to Russian oligarchs.

[36] On 5 April 2022, the Spanish foreign minister announced the expulsion of 25 Russian diplomats and embassy staff, deemed to "represent a threat to the security of our country" (Spain).