In 1924, after the Russian Civil War, Great Britain was the first foreign power to recognize the new Soviet government, sending an ambassador to Moscow in 1924. He was provided with a palace at Boloto, on the Island, or Zamoskvorechye, near the Kremlin in Moscow, and the British embassy remained there until 2000.[4]
In the mid-1960s, the present embassy site at 10 Smolenskaya Embankment, near the Novoarbatsky Bridge, comprising 2.27 acres (0.92 hectares), was offered to the British Government, but it was not until March 1987 that an agreement was signed for the land to be exchanged for two sites in London. The architects for the new embassy were Ahrends, Burton and Koralek (ABK) of London and Dublin, and the new complex was officially opened by Anne, Princess Royal on 17 May 2000.[5]
The present embassy building contains offices for 250 staff; 31 flats for staff and facilities for their recreation and welfare, including a swimming pool and cafeteria, medical centre and kindergarten, workshops and stores; and covered car parking for 85 cars.[5][6]
In July 2022, the city authorities renamed the section of the Smolenskaya Embankment where the embassy stands to the Luhansk People's Republic Square, celebrating the Luhansk People's Republic; the embassy stated that it would continue to use the previous address. At the same time, Moscow renamed an intersection near the United States EmbassyasDonetsk People's Republic Square.[8] The Moscow authorities stated that this was in retaliation for a one-block section of Wisconsin Avenue in front of the Embassy of Russia, Washington, D.C., being renamed in honor of Boris Nemtsov, a Russian dissident shot dead by assassins in 2015.[9]
^Michael Hughes, "There will be a catastrophe" in INSIDE THE ENIGMA: British Officials in Russia, 1900-39 (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 1997), pp. 13–74
^Helen Rappaport, Caught in the Revolution, (London: Windmill Books, 2016 ISBN978-0-09-959242-6), p. 324
^The Economist Guide: USSR (London: The Economist, 1990), p. 108.
1 Diplomatic posts only with no consular facilities. 2 Consular posts only with no diplomatic functions. 3 The United Kingdom and Her Majesty's Government do not recognise or have formal bilateral intergovernmental, diplomatic or consular relations with the (generally unrecognised) Government of the Republic of China in Taipei. Functions in Taiwan as an accredited informal and unofficial representative post and a semi-official informal consular post.
