Foreign Ministry sends Ricardo Martínez to Moscow, replacing Marcos Gómez, who goes to the UN-Geneva

Eduardo González Yesterday, the Council of Ministers appointed Ricardo Martínez as ambassador in Moscow, where he will replace Marcos Gómez, who has been elected permanent representative ambassador of Spain to the UN Office and International Organizations in Geneva, as The Diplomat had announced in both cases. Marcos Gómez, ambassador in Moscow since October 2021, has a degree in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid, a diploma in French Law from the University of Paris XI and a sworn translator-interpreter of Russian and English. He entered the Diplomatic Career in 1990 with the number one in his promotion and began his work in the field of multilateral diplomacy in his first assignment in the Human Rights Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He served as an advisor (2001-2004) in the Permanent Mission that he will now lead and was director general of the United Nations, International Organizations and Human Rights between 2018 and 2021. Abroad, he was deputy consul in London and consul general in Canton (China), ambassador to New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Islands (2007-2011), ambassador to Colombia (2021) and, since October, ambassador of Spain in Russia, also accredited to Armenia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Precisely, his appointment to the UN in Geneva was delayed while waiting for Russia to grant its approval to his replacement as ambassador in Moscow, Ricardo Martínez, who was also appointed yesterday to this position. In diplomatic circles, it was expected that the Government of Vladimir Putin would apply reciprocity to the actions of the Spanish Executive, which took four months to grant approval to the current ambassador in Madrid, Yuri Klimenko. The approval for Martínez was requested in mid-February and arrived at the end of June. Until last February, Martínez, a diplomat since 1986, was ambassador to Germany, where he spent five and a half years, after having held the Consulates in Sao Paulo and Edinburgh, and having been, among other things, general director of Cooperation with Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe and general director of Casa África. Ricardo Martínez is a veteran diplomat, with good connections with the PSOE and who has had time in recent months to catch up on both the Russian language and the complicated relations that the Spanish Government maintains with the Russian Government. On the other hand, the Council of Ministers yesterday appointed Javier Herrera as ambassador to Slovenia, as The Diplomat had also anticipated. Member of the Diplomatic Career since 1988, he was Consul General of Spain in Paris since January 2020. In addition, he was Director General of International Legal Cooperation and Relations with Faiths in the Ministry of Justice and held several subdirectorates in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. . Likewise, Alejandra del Río has been appointed ambassador of Spain in Norway. A diplomat since 1999, she was a counselor in the Permanent Representation of Spain to the United Nations (New York), director of the Cabinet of the Minister Spokesperson, director of the Cabinet of the Secretariat of State for International Cooperation for Development and advisor in various Departments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Until now, she held the position of general director of Autonomous and Local Cooperation in the Ministry of Territorial Policy. Finally, Oriol Escalas has been appointed ambassador as deputy permanent representative of Spain to the European Union. Member of the Diplomatic Career since 2008, since March 2020 he was assigned to the Cabinet of the Presidency of the Government, first as an advisory member in the EU Department, later as head of the Coordination Unit of the Coordination Office for the Presidency Spanish of the EU and, since this year, as deputy director of the Department of European Affairs.

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