List of ambassadors of Russia to Lithuania

The territory occupied by Lithuania had been part of the Russian Empire since the eighteenth century. In the aftermath of the First World War and the collapse of the empire following the Russian Revolution in 1917, Lithuania declared independence on 16 February 1918. Diplomatic relations were established between Lithuania and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic on 12 July 1920, and Aleksandr Akselrod [ru] was appointed the first Plenipotentiary representative on 26 August that year.^[3] Representation continued until the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940, after which Lithuania was de facto part of the USSR for the remainder of the existence of the Soviet Union, with the exception of a period of occupation by Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1944 during the Second World War. Soviet forces re-occupied Lithuania in 1944, after which Lithuania became a constituent part of the Soviet Union as the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.^[3]

As part of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Lithuania's secession was recognized by the State Council of the Soviet Union on 6 September 1991. Diplomatic relations with Russia were established on 9 October 1991. Following growing diplomatic tensions in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Lithuanian government expelled the Russian ambassador on 4 April 2022, and closed the consulate in Klaipėda.^[4] Representation has since been by chargé d'affaires.^[2]