<h6><strong>The Diplomat</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The new Spanish ambassador to the Russian Federation, Ricardo Martínez, presented his credentials to the president of that country, Vladimir Putin, yesterday in the Kremlin.</strong></h4> Ricardo Martínez, who had previously been ambassador to Berlin, <strong>was appointed on July 2</strong> by the Council of Ministers to head the diplomatic representation in Moscow. <strong>The Russian authorities took four months to grant the agrément to Martínez</strong>, which had been requested in February,<strong> the same time that Spain had taken to grant it to the current Russian ambassador in Madrid, Yuri Klimenko.</strong> <strong>Putin has made Martínez wait another four months</strong> to present his credentials, but unlike what the Spanish Government did, <strong>he has provided graphic evidence </strong>of the moment<strong>. Klimenko</strong>, who arrived in Spain in October 2022,<strong> did not present his Credentials to the King until April 2023, six months later</strong>, and not in a ceremony at the Royal Palace, together with other ambassadors, as is traditional, but <strong>at the Zarzuela Palace</strong>, i<a href="https://thediplomatinspain.com/en/2023/04/21/government-arranged-semi-clandestine-delivery-of-russian-ambassadors-letters-of-credence/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">n a meeting with the Monarch that was announced after the fact and <strong>without photographs of the moment.</strong></a> Putin's government did not grant a visa to the diplomat Antonio Ramos, who had been chosen by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, as consul general in Moscow, a post that has been vacant since the reciprocal expulsions of Spanish and Russian diplomats in May 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Although they did not say so publicly, the Russian authorities denied the visa to the consul, after the Spanish Executive had rejected a dozen requests for the incorporation of new members to the Russian Embassy in Madrid.
