Andrei Karlov, the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, was fatally shot by Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş on the night of 19 December 2016 at an art exhibition in Ankara, Turkey.[5][6][7] The assassination took place after several days of protests in Turkey over Russian involvement in the Syrian Civil War and the battle over Aleppo, though the Russian and Turkish governments had been negotiating a ceasefire.[4]