With a diplomatic career spanning five decades, Lavrov is one of Russia’s most popular and longest serving ministers, having been appointed to his current role in 2004.

Known for his tough and relentless promotion of the Russian government’s interests on the world stage, Lavrov’s attempts to justify the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine — which have included false accusations that Ukraine was seeking to acquire nuclear weapons and violating the human rights of the country’s Russian-speaking minority — have only isolated the Kremlin further and led to mass walkouts by diplomats at the U.N.

Svetlana Polyakova (his companion), Polina Kovaleva (his stepdaughter)