Moscow, Nov. 12 -- Dr Nguyen Quoc Hung, Vice President of the Union of Vietnamese Organisations in Russia and Director of the "Tradition and Friendship" Fund, has become the only foreign recipient of the badge "For Special Merits in International Cooperation" of the administration of Russia's St Petersburg city.

Other awardees included Andrey Vassoevich, Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies under Herzen State Pedagogical University; Gasan Gasanov, head of the Representative Office of the Republic of Dagestan in St Petersburg; Vladimir Moiseenko, Acting Director of the N.P. Napalkov Oncology Centre; and Margarita Mudrak, Chairwoman of the Board of the Interregional Association for International Cooperation.

Speaking at the award...