MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who has held this post for 21 years, the longest in the current cabinet, is celebrating his 75th birthday today.
Career beginnings
Lavrov's diplomatic career began with studies at the MGIMO University, where he graduated from the Eastern Department of the Faculty of International Relations in 1972. The first step in his professional career was his appointment to the USSR Embassy in Sri Lanka. This was only logical: during his student years, in addition to English and French, Lavrov mastered the rare Sinhalese language.
Later he held a number of important positions in the central office of the Foreign Ministry, and in 1994 he was appointed permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations. Lavrov worked in this post for ten years, and his charisma, excellent sense of humor, and "ability to smoke" in the workplace are still remembered at the New York headquarters. On March 9, 2004, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia.
125 times around the equator
Working as head of Russian diplomacy means constant business trips. Last year alone, which was not the busiest for trips, Lavrov visited more than two dozen countries, including China, Qatar, Iran, Turkey, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Malta, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, Laos, the United States, Mongolia, Malaysia, Vietnam, North Korea, Burkina Faso, the Republic of the Congo, Guinea. The Russian Foreign Minister visited Belarus and Kazakhstan several times, and paid his first ever visit to the Republic of Chad.
This translates into about 240,000 kilometers of travels by air. Simple math calculations show that even at this annual rate, Lavrov's total flight time in the 21 years stands at about five million kilometers, or at least seven flights to the Moon and back, or 125 times around the equator.
Back in 2021, the minister said that he had visited about 150 states, but Russia was always the most attractive country for him.
Gift collection
Over the years, the minister received an African tom-tom, an Indian scarf, guitars as gifts, and in 2014, Lavrov got two huge potatoes from Idaho as a gift from John Kerry, to which he later reciprocated with tomatoes from the Krasnodar Region.
A separate collection includes near-sports gifts. For example, Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira gave Lavrov an autographed T-shirt by Vinicius Junior, a player of the national team and Real Madrid, as a gift. The diplomat gratefully confessed, "He is one of my favorite football players." Last year, Bashkiria's Sports Minister Ruslan Khabibov presented Lavrov with a paddle of Russian slalom athlete Alsa Mingazova, with which she competed at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Hobbies
Lavrov is passionate about football. He is a devoted Spartak fan, and on Sundays, when he is free from big politics, he goes out to kick the ball on the football field.