Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov is a Russian diplomat who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2004. He is the country's longest-serving foreign minister since the Soviet era.
After graduating from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) in 1972, Lavrov began his diplomatic career in Sri Lanka and speaks fluent Sinhala, Dhivehi, English, and French, in addition to his native Russian. From 1981 to 1988 he held several posts in the Soviet Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York City. Starting in the late 1980s he was deputy director and then director of the Foreign Ministry's Department of International Organizations before becoming a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1992. He served as Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1994 to 2004, where he gained a reputation for assertively defending Russian interests during crises, including the Kosovo War and the Iraq invasion. Throughout his tenure, Lavrov has remained a central figure in shaping Russia's foreign policy under President Vladimir Putin.