Sergey Lavrov

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Sergey Lavrov. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev

Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov (Russian: Серге́й Ви́кторович Лавро́в, born March 21, 1950, in Moscow) is the Foreign Minister of Russia^[1].

Lavrov speaks Russian, English, French and Sinhala, which he learned while in Sri Lanka. He plays guitar, writes poetry and rafts.

1 Russia-Sri Lanka diplomacy
2 Ambassador to the United Nations
3 Foreign Ministership
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Russia-Sri Lanka diplomacy

Lavrov graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1972. He was sent as a Soviet diplomat to Sri Lanka, where he worked until 1976. He then returned to Moscow and worked in the main office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Ambassador to the United Nations

In 1981, he was sent as a senior adviser to the Soviet mission at the United Nations in New York City, and worked there until 1988. He 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.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Foreign Ministership

On March 9, 2004, President Vladimir Putin appointed Lavrov to the post of Minister for Foreign Affairs. He succeeded Igor Ivanov in the post.

On 28 September 2006 Lavrov said he is "convinced that dialogue [between] Russian governmental agencies" and "the management of Sakhalin Energy," referring to Royal Dutch Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi, will "enable these differences to be sorted out. Our interests are best served if the rich natural resources of this region are used for the good of Russia and for the strengthening of our position in the world ... The more effectively we make use of our natural resources for our development, the stronger our position will be internationally." One week earlier the Government of Russia had revoked environmental permits for the companies involved in the project. Gazprom, the state-owned Russian company, has signed a yet to be finalized agreement giving it 25% of the projects profit.^[1]^[2]