Baltic States – CIS, Latvia, Russia

As reported, the Latvian Foreign Ministry has given its approval to the next Russian ambassador to Latvia, Yevgeny Lukyanov, who is replacing Alexander Veshnyakov in this diplomatic post.

Earlier LETA was told at the Russian Embassy in Riga that upon his arrival in Riga the new ambassador would have several meetings with Latvian officials.

Veshnyakov had been serving as Russian Ambassador to Latvia since February 2008.

Lukyanov was born in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) on September 10, 1951.

Lukyanov has a degree in English literature from the St. Petersburg State University. He worked at the Impuls research institute from 1974 to 1981 when he was appointed deputy secretary of the Soviet Journalists' Union in Leningrad Oblast. From 1984 to 1990 Lukyanov was working at the Foreign Ministry of the Soviet Union.

In the early 1990s Lukyanov worked as a senior official at the State Hermitage Museum and the International Banking Institute in St. Petersburg. From 1993 to 2006 he worked in various senior posts at Dresdner Bank's subsidiary in Russia and at Vneshtorgbank (VTB).

In 2006 Lukyanov was appointed a senior official at the office of the Russian president's commissioner in Northwest Federal District of Russia.

From 2010 to 2012 Lukyanov was aide to the secretary of Russia's Security Council, and in 2012 he was appointed the council's deputy secretary.