Sergey Lavrov was born on March 21, 1950, in Moscow, the capital of Russia. His full name is Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov. His father was an Armenian originally from Tbilisi with the surname Kalantaryan, while his mother, Kaleriya Borisovna Lavrova, was Russian. Lavrov took his mother’s surname. His mother worked at the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Trade. He received his early education in the city of Noginsk at the V. Korolenko School, and later completed his secondary education at Moscow School No. 607 after intensive studies in English. In 1972, he graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

During his first year at the university, Sergey Lavrov participated with fellow students in a month-long volunteer effort in Moscow to assist in the construction of the Ostankino Tower, which was planned to serve as a radio and television broadcasting tower and to become the tallest structure in Europe at the time. During his summer breaks, he also worked in Siberia, including the regions of Khakassia, Tuva, and the Russian Far East.

In 1972, the same year he graduated, Sergey Lavrov began his diplomatic career at the Embassy of the USSR in Sri Lanka. While serving in Sri Lanka, he learned the Sinhala language. He initially worked as an advisor, as well as a translator and personal secretary, and was later promoted to attaché. He returned to Moscow in 1976.

Sergey Lavrov is fluent in Russian, English, French, Dhivehi, and Sinhala.

Between 1976 and 1981, he served as third and second secretary in the International Economic Relations Department of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1981, he was appointed senior advisor to the USSR Mission to the United Nations in New York. From 1981 to 1988, he worked in New York as First Secretary of the Permanent Mission of the USSR to the United Nations.

From 1988 to 1990, Sergey Lavrov served as Deputy Head of the International Economic Relations Department of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Between 1990 and 1992, he headed the Department of Global Problems and International Organizations at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

From 1992 to 1994, Sergey Lavrov served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia. Between 1994 and 2004, he was the Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations. In addition, from 1995 to 2004, he served as President of the United Nations Security Council.

Sergey Lavrov married Maria Lavrova in 1971. The couple has one daughter, Ekaterina Lavrova, born in 1982.

On March 9, 2004, Sergey Lavrov was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia by President Vladimir Putin. Following the election of Dmitry Medvedev as President of Russia in 2008, he was reappointed to the same position in the spring of 2008. He was appointed once again to the post on May 21, 2012, by Vladimir Putin.

Sergey Lavrov continues to serve as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Source: Biyografiler.com