Cecilia Piccioni is New Italian Ambassador to Moscow
The head of the Italian diplomatic mission had to wait seven months to get Russian approval, the same waiting period that the Italian Foreign Ministry reserved for Russian Ambassador Alexei Paramonov
Cecilia Piccioni received the so-called “approval” from Russia, a kind of certification by which Moscow officially accepted the candidacy, after which on July 15, 2024, the position was taken by the new Italian Ambassador to the Russian Federation. Since the end of Giorgio Starace’s term of office in early December 2023, the Italian Embassy in Moscow has been headed by Pietro Sferra Carini, who has been acting as Chargé d’Affaires pending the arrival of the new head of the diplomatic mission. The Italian government chose Piccioni as the new ambassador back in December 2023, but Moscow complained about the treatment of Russian ambassador Alexei Paramonov, who waited a good seven months for credentials before receiving Farnesina’s approval.
Now the mutual diplomatic “retaliation” has come to its logical conclusion. According to a press release from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Piccioni was born on June 21, 1964 in Rome and graduated from the University of Rome’s Department of Political Science in 1991. On September 23, 1996, after a competitive examination, she was appointed as a volunteer in a diplomatic career, with commercial specialization. After an initial appointment to the Ministry’s General Directorate of Economics, she became the second Commercial Secretary in Prague in 2000. In 2004, Piccioni was appointed as the first commercial secretary in Washington, DC, where she was confirmed as counselor in 2006. In 2008, she returned to Rome to begin work in the office of Diplomatic Counselor to the President of the Council of Ministers. In 2010, Piccioni became Counselor at the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations in New York. In 2015, she was appointed Italy’s ambassador to Vietnam.
In 2018, Piccioni returned to Rome to serve the Fincantieri. In 2020, she returned to Farnesina to report directly to the CEO of Country System Advancement. In 2021, she became Deputy Director General for the Promotion of the Country System and Chief Director for the Promotion of Italian Culture and Language. In 2022, she served as Deputy Chief of Cabinet for the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. In 2021, she was appointed an official Chevalier of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
Finally, in December 2023, Piccioni was appointed Italian Ambassador to the Russian Federation.
