Moscow: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has received one of the country’s highest honours, the Order of St Andrew the Apostle the First-Called, from President Vladimir Putin in a Kremlin ceremony.
Lavrov said he regarded the award not as a personal accolade, but as a recognition of the collective efforts of Russia’s diplomatic corps.
“Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, it is a tremendous honour for me to receive this award from your hands and to hear the words with which you preceded it. I don’t want to sound formal, but I’ll say from the bottom of my heart: I perceive your decision as an evaluation of the work of our entire team in implementing the tasks you set in foreign policy,” Lavrov said during the presentation.
Lavrov added that he believed the honour would serve as encouragement for his colleagues to continue their work amid growing geopolitical pressure.
He referred to the current state of international affairs as one marked by stark polarisation. “Where, without exaggeration, a battle between good and evil is taking place,” he said.
Lavrov, who has served as foreign minister since 2004, is one of Russia’s longest-standing senior officials. He has been a central figure in shaping the country’s foreign policy under Putin’s leadership, particularly during moments of high international tension, including Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Order of St Andrew, first established by Tsar Peter the Great in 1698, is Russia’s most prestigious state decoration, awarded for extraordinary service to the state. Its recipients include figures from politics, science, and the military.
