MOSCOW, May 22. /TASS/. President Vladimir Putin has presented Russia's highest award, the Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle the First-Called, to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a ceremony in the Catherine Hall of the Kremlin's Senate Palace.
Lavrov was awarded by presidential decree on March 21, on the day of his 75th birthday. The Russian foreign minister received the order "for his outstanding merits to the homeland, his great contribution to the development and implementation of Russia's foreign policy line, as well as many years of fruitful state service."