Denmark–Russia relations (alternatively: Dano-Russian relations) are the relations between the countries of Denmark and Russia. The Kings of Denmark and the Russian Tsars interacted from the 15th century onwards – subsequently Denmark's control of access to and from the Baltic Sea had considerable significance for the trade and naval flexibility of the Russian Empire, while rivalries between Denmark and Sweden on the one hand and between Sweden and Russia on the other led to alliances and military support. Denmark and the USSR established diplomatic relations on 18 June 1924.
Russia has an embassy in Copenhagen and a consulate in Tórshavn (in the Faroe Islands); Denmark has an embassy in Moscow, a Consulate-General in Saint Petersburg, and an honorary consulate in Kaliningrad. Both countries border the Baltic Sea and are members of the Council of Europe and of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
History
Early Modern era
Amicable relations between the Kingdom of Denmark and the Muscovite state were based on a mutual assistance pact of 1493, renewed in 1506 and 1517. In 1562, the Danish king Frederick II and the Russian tsar Ivan IV continued amicable relations based on the Treaty of Mozhaysk. (The two realms were neighbours: Denmark had interests in the Duchy of Estonia from 1219 to 1346 and from 1559 to 1645.)
18th century
Great Northern War
During the Great Northern War, a coalition of various states successfully attacked the Swedish Empire in northern Central and Eastern Europe. Initially, the anti-Swedish alliance was composed of the Tsardom of Russia, Denmark-Norway, and Saxe-Poland-Lithuania. Frederik IV and August the Strong were forced out of the alliance in 1700 and 1706, respectively, but re-joined it in 1709. George I of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) joined the coalition in 1714 for Hanover, and 1717 for Britain, and Frederick William I of Brandenburg-Prussia in 1715. On the Swedish side were Holstein-Gottorp (a Danish vassal), between 1704 and 1710 several Polish and Lithuanian magnates under Stanisław Leszczyński, and between 1708 and 1710 cossacks under Ivan Mazepa. The Ottoman Empire temporarily hosted Charles XII of Sweden and intervened against Peter the Great.
After fighting in various other theatres went against the Swedes, Sweden proper was invaded by Denmark-Norway from the west and by Russia from the east. Though the Danish attacks were repulsed, Russia managed to occupy Finland and inflict severe losses on the Swedish navy and coastal fortresses. Charles XII opened up a Norwegian front, but was killed in Fredriksten in 1718. The war ended with a defeat for Sweden, leaving Russia as the new major power in the Baltic Sea and a new important player in European politics – in fact, it signed the beginning of a pattern of Russian expansion that would only be stopped two centuries later. Denmark gained little from Sweden in the peace settlement, but it was able to gain at the expense of its disloyal vassal in Holstein.
Holstein-Gottorp
Sweden's defeat in the Great Northern War ended its patronage for Holstein-Gottorp, and Denmark used the occasion to seize Gottorp's territory in Schleswig. The frustrated Duke of Holstein-Gottorp sought support for the recovery of Schleswig in Russia and married into the Russian imperial family in 1725. Russian Empress Elizabeth died childless in 1762, and she appointed her nephew, the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, to be her successor in Russia. When he ascended the throne as Tsar Peter III of Russia, Holstein-Gottorp came to be ruled in personal union by the Emperor of Russia, creating a conflict of territorial claims between Russia and Denmark.
Peter III threatened war with Denmark for the recovery of his ancestral lands, but before any fighting could begin he was overthrown by his wife, who took control of Russia as Tsarina Catherine II. Empress Catherine reversed Russia's stance, withdrawing her husband's ultimatum and even entering an alliance with Denmark in 1765. In the 1760s the two governments negotiated the transfer of ducal Schleswig-Holstein to the Danish crown in return for Russian control of the County of Oldenburg and adjacent lands within the Holy Roman Empire, an exchange that was formalized with the 1773 Treaty of Tsarskoye Selo. The alliance that accompanied the territorial exchange tied Denmark's foreign policy to Russia's and led directly to Denmark's involvement in a series of wars over the succeeding decades.
Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)