Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov’s Reply to a Question from the Newspaper Izvestia

Question: The newspaper Izvestia this year for the fifth time will present the Notability award. You won it last year. How do you regard this award and how important do you think it is from the standpoint of public significance?

Lavrov: I was truly flattered when I became a winner of the Notability award, bestowed on me in 2009. Izvestia is a newspaper highly respected and greatly loved by me; it has kept up traditions and also responds to current realities in the country and the world.

I believe that among the many awards designed to celebrate the outstanding services of people in politics, arts, culture and sports the Notability award occupies its rightful place. It is very important that the selection of winners (in this case I do not mean myself) is always accompanied by a desire to show the civic stance of those people, perhaps, hitherto unknown, but who, having found themselves in a particular situation, without seeking notability, did just as their hearts prompted them. If this criterion, which in my view is central to the editorial board, stays unaltered, then the award will remain desirable for many.

March 18, 2010