Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Photo: Anton NOVODEREZHKIN/TASS
From Korean friends
During the flight from Pyongyang to Moscow aboard the Il-96, it was difficult not to notice the impressive size of the box. A little more and you could say it’s huge. The contents of this box were not a secret for a long time for journalists returning from a business trip to the DPRK together with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
– What’s inside? – I asked one of our diplomats.
“This is a gift from the head of the North Korean Foreign Ministry, Sergei Viktorovich,” he responded.
A little later we discovered that in the box there was a beautiful porcelain vase.
What is the future fate of such gifts? According to Russian law, gifts received during a business trip must be handed over to officials to the authorized structural unit of the government agency in which they work.
Exchanging gifts is an integral part of diplomacy.
Photo: Vladislav VOROBYEV
The treasures were put on the shelves.
But this is the Federal Law of the State Public Service. What’s actually happening? Imagination began to draw a certain “Aladdin’s cave” in the depths of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs skyscraper on Smolenskaya Square.
Of course, there are no treasuries in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But getting to the place where the high-ranking gifts are kept proved to be a challenge. The fact is that on the floor of the high-rise building on Smolenskaya, where Lavrov’s office is located, for obvious reasons, you will not be able to “take a walk” without a special pass. And that is where in the corridors of power there are large glass display cases, locked. They contain a large collection of gifts for the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
A symbolic beginning to the reset/recharging of Russian-American relations.
Photo: Vladislav VOROBYEV
euro in cyrillic
We still managed to get a special pass. And now “Aladdin’s cave” opened its doors. I didn’t specifically count how many display cases line the walls. Definitely no less than fifteen. At the same time, my eyes immediately began to widen.
There was no doubt that most of the unique pieces in this Foreign Office exhibition were, to put it mildly, expensive. And yet, we managed to discover at least one very modest gift. The exact price is even known: five euros.
On one of the shelves, framed under glass, was a real bill. And in the corner there is a signature “To Mr. Lavrov SV from the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Bulgaria, Boyko Kotsev.”
But this gift was not simple, but with meaning. In 2013, Mr. Kotsev told me how, while working in Brussels before being appointed to Moscow, he actively participated in negotiations aimed at deciding to print the Cyrillic inscription on euro banknotes. Then Sofia (a rare case) managed to insist on her account, and a little later this banknote with the inscription “EURO” appeared in Lavrov’s collection of gifts.
Model “Registan Ensemble – the heart of Samarkand”.
Photo: Vladislav VOROBIEV
Heart of gold
Literally in the next window, I noticed an element that was difficult to immediately appreciate. Yes, no one from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did this. The sign beneath the gift read: “Handmade. Material: 999 gold plated brass.”
Almost the entire shelf was occupied by the model “Registan Ensemble – the heart of Samarkand”. The square, considered one of the most magnificent in the world, was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2001. In fact, only the inscriptions on the walls of the Tillya-Kari madrassa located in this world-famous square are covered in gold. It turns out that the “Heart of Samarkand” completely covered in gold is found only in the Russian Foreign Ministry, although in a reduced size.
euro in cyrillic
Photo: Vladislav VOROBIEV
Typo or suggestion?
Another piece from the collection of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with an interesting history is, without a doubt, the red button with the inscription “Overload”. In the now distant March 2009, Lavrov’s first personal meeting with the American Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, took place in Geneva.
The journalists were literally a few meters away when the American diplomat decided to give her Russian colleague a very modest gift. Clinton handed him the usual button and invited him to press it to give a symbolic start to the restoration of Russian-American relations (there were times like that). Lavrov responded smiling and immediately said: “But there is a mistake!”
It was clearly seen how the famous American smile instantly disappeared from Clinton’s face. Lavrov explained that the State Department translators had made a mistake and instead of “Reset” they wrote “Overload.” The typo turned out to be symbolic: and instead of restarting, our relations with the United States sank, as if from an overload.
And this bird was placed upside down on the shelf!
Photo: Vladislav VOROBIEV
By the way, in a very worthy place in one of the showcases is the gift that another American Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, gave to our minister: a landscape with views of a mountain on an island. No one has yet been able to unravel the symbolic meaning of this message. Considering how much Russian-American relations have deteriorated recently, one might assume that Washington’s gifts will move from “permanent display” to warehouses. But not. Historical exhibits remain in place.
The secret of the hummingbird
For dessert they told me a short story about a golden gift from Slovenia, which for a long time was shrouded in a halo of mystery. Many of those who have access to the treasure floor could not understand what the figure in the black frame meant. It seemed that our experienced diplomats would never be able to decipher this Slovenian secret.
But suddenly someone realized that the gift was actually simply placed face down on the shelf. By rotating the gold decoration 180 degrees, it became evident that it represented a small bird. Most likely it is a hummingbird.
– I wish we could organize a real exhibition of all these unique exhibits. In addition, in a place where anyone can get – I expressed at the end of the excursion what was on my tongue almost all the time while looking at the showcases with diplomatic treasures.
In my opinion, our diplomats liked the idea.
