Raymond Benedict Bartholomew Michael Asquith, 3rd Earl of Oxford and Asquith, Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British former diplomat and hereditary peer.
Background
Styled Viscount Asquith until he succeeded to his father"s peerage titles on 16 January 2011, the earldom of Oxford and Asquith was created for his paternal great-grandfather, H. H. Asquith, a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Lord Oxford (as he is now known) is the elder son of the late 2nd Earl of Oxford and Asquith.
Education
He was educated at Farleigh School and Ampleforth College, and subsequently obtained an Master of Arts degree at Balliol College, Oxford.
Career
Raymond Asquith joined Her Majesty Diplomatic Service in 1980 as a career diplomat, serving until 1997. As well as postings in London at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and to the Cabinet Office, he served as First Secretary at the British Embassy in Moscow from 1983-1985, and Counsellor at Her Majesty Embassy in Kiev from 1992-1997. According to the Daily Telegraph, he was MI6 station commander in Moscow and was personally responsible for exfiltrating the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security) officer and British agent Oleg Gordievsky concealed in his car.
Asquith was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for "diplomatic services" in 1992.
He is currently a company director of the Ukrainian corporation owned by Dmytro Firtash, and is also active in various organizations working for or promoting charitable activities in the Ukraine.