Background

Peru and the Russian Empire first established bilateral relations on May 16, 1874.^[1][2] Said relations were handled by the Peruvian Minister Plenipotentiary, based in the legation in Saint Petesburg and also accredited to Germany.^[3] With the execution of the Romanov family and the downfall of the Russian Republic as a result of the Russian Civil War, both countries ceased to have any diplomatic relations in 1918.^[3]

Soviet Embassy (1970–1991)

After the establishment of the United Nations and the establishment of a Peruvian seat of honor in 1942, then president Manuel Prado Ugarteche personally refused to host a Soviet diplomatic mission in Lima, also refusing to send an ambassador to the Soviet Union.^[4] Only after the coup that deposed Fernando Belaúnde and allowed Juan Velasco Alvarado to establish his so-called revolutionary government were relations reestablished at an embassy level in 1969, alongside other socialist countries.^[5][3][6]

With relations reestablished, the Soviet government bought a manor in Orrantia Del Mar, a borough of the upper-class San Isidro district that originally belonged to Anita Fernandini de Naranjo and would eventually become the embassy in 1970.^[7][8][9]

In 1975, after Alvarado announced the Plan Inca, a rationing plan in line with the government's attempts at implementing socialist policies, a unique type of protests took place outside of the embassy, as several cars with covered license plates drove by the building, with their occupants hurling rocks at the embassy and driving away.^[10]

With the internal conflict between the Peruvian government and leftist guerrillas beginning in 1980, both the Soviet Embassy and Soviet citizens became targets of these terror groups. Because Soviet–Peruvian relations had strengthened after Mikhail Gorbachev's rise to power, guerrillas such as the Shining Path attacked the embassy several times due to the former's support of the latter against the group.^[11][12] In 1985, the embassy was bombed alongside the Chinese and U.S. embassies,^[13][14] and the following year, Shining Path terrorists almost bombed the building from the inside.^[12][15] The embassy was again bombed in October 1989,^[16] being preceded by a car bomb attack that targeted Soviet sailors in Callao.^[11]

Russian Embassy (1991–present)

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Peru recognised the Russian Federation as its successor state on 26 December 1991,^[5][17] with the embassy now representing the new Russian state.^[8][9]

In February 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, protests were held in front of the embassy by both locals and Ukrainian residents in Lima.^[18][19]