Yartsevo (Russian: Я́рцево) is a town and the administrative center of Yartsevsky District in Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Vop River, 63 kilometers (39 mi) northeast of Smolensk, the administrative center of the oblast.

[1] As an administrative division, it is, together with three rural localities, incorporated within Yartsevsky District as Yartsevskoye Urban Settlement.

In 1997, after his term of office expired, the district council of deputies elected a new head - representative of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Yuri Viktorovich Romanovsky.

In the same year, after the election of a new governor of the Smolensk Oblast, Shchegolev left his post.

Yuri Vasilyevich Pankov, already the fifth head of administration in the recent history of Yartsev, became the mayor.

On 23 June 2004, the city was headed by Vladimir Aleksandrovich Galkin, who was also elected by the deputy corps.

From 21 March 2013 to 20 February 2015, the head of the district administration (merged with the city) was Yuri Pankov (for the second time since 2002–2004).