(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 09.18.2023).- On the morning of Monday, September 18th, Pope Francis received in an audience Mr. Ivan Soltanovsky, the new Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Holy See, on the occasion of the presentation of his Letters of Credence.
Mr. Ivan Soltanovsky, born in 1955, is married and has one daughter.
He graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR.
He entered the diplomatic service in 1977 and has held positions at the General Consulates in Karachi, Pakistan, and Calcutta, India; the Embassy in India; and the Permanent Representation to the OSCE.
He has also served as Deputy Permanent Representative to NATO and Representative to the Council of Europe (from 2015 to 2022).
Soltanovsky replaces former Ambassador Alexander Avdeev, who received a personal visit from the Pope at the Russian Embassy to the Vatican shortly after the outbreak of the war.»
