Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov (Russian: Сергей Викторович Лавров, IPA: [sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ lɐˈvrof]; born 21 March 1950) 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.

Lavrov was born on 21 March 1950 in Tbilisi (Georgian SSR), or in Moscow. His father, Viktor Gabrielovich Kalantarov, who descended from a branch of the medieval Armenian princely family of the Kalantaryans that became Russified as Kalantarovs on settling in Tbilisi at the end of the 19th century, worked in foreign trade. His mother, Kaleriya Borisovna, came from a station master's family in Noginsk, Moscow Oblast, Russian SFSR, and similarly held a position at the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Trade. With his parents frequently away on secondments, or due to family reasons, Lavrov was raised from an early age in Noginsk by his maternal grandparents. He followed a curriculum with extended English first at the V. Korolenko School No. 2 in Noginsk [ru] and then at the Moscow High School No. 607 [ru], from which he graduated with a silver medal [ru]. Since his favourite class was physics, he considered applying to the National Research Nuclear University or the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, but eventually graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) in 1972.

During his education at the MGIMO, Lavrov studied international relations. Soon he learned Sinhalese, then the only official language of Sri Lanka, as well as Dhivehi, the official language of the Maldives. He also learned English and French. After he was admitted to the university, Lavrov, along with other students, was sent for a month to a student construction brigade building the Ostankino Tower.

During his summer vacations, Lavrov also worked in his university's student construction brigades in Khakassia, Tuva and the Russian Far East. Each semester, Lavrov with his fellow students conducted drama performances, which were later presented on the main stage of the university. During the third year of his studies, Lavrov was married.

Lavrov graduated in 1972. According to the rules of that time, a graduate of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations had to work for the Foreign Ministry for a certain amount of time. Lavrov was employed in the Soviet embassy in Sri Lanka as an advisor, as he was already a specialist on the country. At the time, the Soviet Union and Sri Lanka had close market and economic cooperation and the Soviet Union launched the production of natural rubber in the country.

The Soviet embassy in Sri Lanka also maintained relations with the Maldives. The embassy in Sri Lanka employed only 24 diplomats. Lavrov was given the task of continuously analysing the situation in the country, but he also worked as a translator, personal secretary and assistant to Rafiq Nishonov, who would later become the 12th First Secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbek SSR. In addition, he gained the diplomatic rank of an attaché.

In 1976, Lavrov returned to Moscow. He worked as a third and second secretary in the Section for International Economic Relations of the USSR. There, he was involved in analytics and his office also worked with various international organizations, including the United Nations.