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Lavrov visits South African Embassy, leaves note in Condolence Book on death of Mandela

Russian citizens who wish to convey sympathies on the death of Mandela will be able to visit the South African Embassy from Monday to Friday

© ITAR-TASS/Anton Novoderzhkin

MOSCOW, December 06. /ITAR-TASS/.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has visited the South African Embassy in Moscow and written in the Condolence Book, which has been opened due to the death of South African former president Nelson Mandela.

Russian citizens who wish to convey sympathies on the death of Mandela will be able to visit the South African Embassy from Monday to Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 13:30 to 16:00 p.m. Moscow time.

Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Sergei Donskoy, diplomats accredited in Moscow, the South African public and students left their notes in the Condolence Book.

USSR ex-president Mikhail Gorbachev sent a condolence letter to the South African Embassy.

“On behalf of the Russian people and the Russian leadership I want to express my condolences on the death of Nelson Mandela, a great man, an outstanding statesman and faithful son of Africa. Mandela devoted his life to the struggle for the freedom of the country and every South African citizen. The strength of mind, moral and the power of conviction were his main instruments,” Lavrov wrote.

“We’ll remember Nelson Mandela and we’ll be guided by his great example by consolidating moral principles in international affairs that political scientists lack,” Lavrov said.

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