Moscow, May 23 -- 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...