đź“· Photo: Government of Seychelles, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
VICTORIA, Seychelles — President Patrick Herminie received the outgoing Russian Federation Ambassador to Seychelles, Artyom Kozhin, at State House in Victoria on Friday morning for a farewell call that closed a six-and-a-half-year posting and marked the diplomatic high point of Seychelles’ jubilee year with Moscow.
Herminie was joined at the meeting by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, Barry Faure, according to the official State House briefing on the farewell call released on 17 July 2026. Kozhin, who has also served as Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Victoria, will take up his next posting in Qatar.
The ambassador told the president that bilateral ties were stable and had grown more profound in recent times, raising cooperation to a new level. He cited two milestones from the past 12 months as the most visible of his tenure: the historic state visit by Herminie to Russia in April 2026 and Russia’s participation in the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Seychelles’ independence on 29 June, which the public record of Russia-Seychelles relations places in the context of a partnership first formalised on 30 June 1976, a day after Seychelles became independent from the United Kingdom.
The most striking outcome of the new phase is an exchange that reaches beyond the atmosphere. Kozhin briefed Herminie on an initiative to broadcast a message from the Seychellois head of state from outer space, fulfilling a long-held dream of sending something of Seychelles into orbit. Several items, including the national flag and the Coat of Arms, are already circling the Earth. The plan is to bring the items back and place them on display in a museum, giving the jubilee year a permanent physical artefact.
The farewell meeting also firmed up the opening of a Seychelles embassy in Moscow later this year, a project that has been on the diplomatic drawing board since well before Kozhin’s posting. Seychelles is currently represented in Russia through its embassy in Paris and honorary consulates in Saint Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, the bilateral profile of the two countries records. A resident mission in Moscow would be a first.
Herminie thanked the ambassador for both the professional and the personal working relationship, and commended the effectiveness of the Russian government in delivering on cooperation initiatives. He singled out a recent donation of trained service dogs as one example that has already paid dividends in the domestic fight against drugs, alongside Russian support that has assisted local authorities in seizing illicit narcotics. Kozhin agreed that drug trafficking remains a global problem that demands joint responses.
Trade between the two countries continues to track in narrow but useful lanes. Russia exports mineral oils, machinery and equipment to the islands, while Seychelles exports fish, seafood and spices. Tourism has been the more visible thread: an early surge of Russian visitors in the late 2000s prompted Air Seychelles at various points to test direct Moscow services.
Kozhin departs Victoria at a moment when the relationship has moved well beyond the symbolic. The outer space artefacts, the embassy plan, and the recent service dogs donation amount to a portfolio that touches on science, public order and consular presence. For Herminie, who according to his biographical record became the sixth president of Seychelles in October 2025, the farewell call offered a chance to consolidate a year in which Seychelles has visibly re-engaged with a long standing partner.
Sources cited: 1. State House of the Republic of Seychelles, “Outgoing Russian Ambassador Pays Farewell Call on President Herminie” (17 July 2026),
