Sergey Lavrov

Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov (Сергей Викторович Лавров; born 21 March 1950) is a Russian diplomat who has served as the foreign minister of Russia since 2004.

He is the longest-serving foreign minister since the Tsarist era.

Lavrov was born on 21 March 1950 in Moscow, to an Armenian father from Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, and a Russian mother from Noginsk, Russian SFSR.

His father's surname was originally Kalantaryan.

His mother worked in the Soviet Ministry for Foreign Trade.

Lavrov graduated from high school with a silver medal.

Since his favorite class was physics, he planned to enter either the National Research Nuclear University or the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, but he entered the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) and graduated in 1972.

During his education at the MGIMO, Lavrov studied international relations.

Soon he learned Sinhalese, then the only official language of Sri Lanka, as well as Dhivehi, the official language of the Maldives.

He also learned English and French.

After he was admitted to the university, Lavrov, along with other students, was sent for a month to a student construction brigade building the Ostankino Tower.

During his summer vacations, Lavrov also worked in his university's student construction brigades in Khakassia, Tuva and the Russian Far East.

Each semester, Lavrov with his fellow students conducted drama performances, which were later presented on the main stage of the university.

During the third year of his studies, Lavrov was married.

Lavrov graduated in 1972.

According to the rules of that time, a graduate of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations had to work for the Foreign Ministry for a certain amount of time.

Lavrov was employed in the Soviet embassy in Sri Lanka as an advisor, as he was already a specialist on the country.

At the time, the Soviet Union and Sri Lanka had close market and economic cooperation and the Soviet Union launched the production of natural rubber in the country.

The Soviet embassy in Sri Lanka also maintained relations with the Maldives.

The embassy in Sri Lanka employed only 24 diplomats.

In 1976, Lavrov returned to Moscow.

He worked as a third and second secretary in the Section for International Economic Relations of the USSR.

There, he was involved in analytics and his office also worked with various international organizations, including the United Nations.

In 1981, he was sent as a senior adviser to the Soviet mission to the United Nations in New York City.

In 1988, Lavrov returned to Moscow and was named Deputy Chief of the Section for International Economic Relations of the USSR.

Between 1990 and 1992 he worked as Director of the International Organization of the Soviet Foreign Ministry.

In October 1991, Andrey Kozyrev, who was in charge of monitoring international organizations at the time, was named Foreign Minister of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR).

In that year, the powers of the Soviet Foreign Ministry and the Foreign Ministry of the Russian SFSR were distributed.

Until then the Russian SFSR had only a ceremonial role.

In November 1991, the State Council decided to change its name from the Union of Foreign Ministries to the Foreign Ministry of the Soviet Union.

In December 1991, the Foreign Ministry of Soviet Russia became the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation.

In October 1992, the foreign ministers of all Soviet republics, except Georgia and the Baltic states, held a meeting where they dealt with the Union of Foreign Ministries.

In April 1992, he was named deputy foreign minister.

In 1992, Lavrov was named director of the Department for International Organizations and Global Issues in the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation.

Lavrov was asked to oversee the activities of the Human Rights and International Cultural Cooperation and the two departments – for the CIS countries, international organizations and international economic cooperation.

Lavrov was promoted to the diplomatic rank of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary — the highest diplomatic rank in the Russian Federation — by the Decree of the President of Russia of 5 June 1992 No. 568.

Lavrov served as the permanent representative of Russia to the United Nations from 1994 to 2004.

Lavrov worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 1994 when he returned to work in the United Nations, this time as the Permanent Representative of Russia.

Lavrov was given the task of continuously analysing the situation in the country, but he also worked as a translator, personal secretary and assistant to Rafiq Nishonov, who would later become the 12th First Secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbek SSR.

In addition, he gained the diplomatic rank of an attaché.