The following individuals were awarded the Order of Friendship: •
Pedro Duque, First Spanish Astronaut. Awarded for the Cervantes mission in 1998, which was launched from Russia. •
Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta • His Holiness
Baselios Marthoma Mathews III -The Malankara Metropolitan and the Catholicos of the Malankara Church, India •
Saleumxay Kommasith, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Laos •
Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysian 4th and 7th Prime Minister •
Adelina Sotnikova, a Russian competitive figure skater •
Evgenia Medvedeva, a Russian competitive figure skater •
Kamila Valieva, a Russian competitive figure skater •
Adolf Shayevich, Russian-Jewish rabbi •
Sopubek Begaliev, Kyrgyz politician (Kyrgyzstan) •
Lydia T. Black, a historian and anthropologist in the field of
Russian America (US) •
George Blake, double agent (UK) •
David Blatt, basketball coach (Israel/US) •
William Craft Brumfield, historian, preservationist and photographer (US) • The Right Honourable
Jean Chrétien, PC, OM, CC, KC, former
prime minister of Canada •
Dimitris Christofias, President of Cyprus •
Ahmad Afandi Abdulaev, Mufti of
Dagestan •
Van Cliburn, renowned pianist (US) •
Bernie Ecclestone, British business magnate •
Andrey Elinson, former Deputy CEO
Basic Element •
Patricia Cloherty,
entrepreneur and businesswoman (US) •
Frank De Winne,
ESA astronaut and head of the European Astronaut Centre (Belgium) •
Milorad Dodik, President of the
Republika Srpska •
Maurice Druon, writer (France) •
Yuli Gusman, film director (Azerbaijan) •
Nadey Hakim (2021) •
Eero Heinäluoma, Deputy Prime Minister of Finland, threw the award away after the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine •
Ignatius IV of Antioch (Hazim), patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Christian Church •
Prince Dimitri Romanov, claimant to headship of the
Imperial House of Russia •
Victor Hochhauser, British music promoter •
Gleb Ivashentsov (2003) •
Hun Sen,
Prime Minister of Cambodia •
Gianni Infantino, president of
FIFA. •
Daisaku Ikeda, president of
Soka Gakkai International (Japan) •
Jayakanthan, Tamil writer (India), 2011 •
Murli Manohar Joshi, Indian physicist and politician •
Akhmad Kadyrov, President of
Chechnya •
Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress •
Anatoly Karpov, chess player, for his great contribution to strengthening peace and friendship between peoples and productive social activities •
Timo Vihavainen, professor at the University of Helsinki (Finland) •
Roman Abramovich, former owner of
Chelsea F.C •
Prince Michael of Kent, cousin of Queen
Elizabeth II and descendant of
Tsar Alexander II of Russia; a qualified
interpreter of
Russian (UK). He returned the honour in the aftermath of the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. •
Vakhtang Kikabidze, singer and actor (the award was rejected by Kikabidze in August 2008) (Georgia) •
Emir Kusturica, Serbian filmmaker, actor and musician •
André Kuipers,
ESA astronaut (Netherlands) •
Christine Lagarde, President of the
European Central Bank and former Managing Director of the
IMF (France) •
Lee Kuan Yew,
Minister Mentor of
Singapore •
Valery Leontiev, pop singer •
Yulia Lipnitskaya, figure skater, received award for outstanding performance at the 2014
Sochi Winter Olympics •
Antonio Mennini,
Apostolic Nuncio to Russia (2002–2010) for his contribution to the development of Russian-Vatican relations (Vatican) •
Ralph Munro (1998) •
Aliya Mustafina, Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics •
Riccardo Muti, conductor (Italy) •
Oscar Niemeyer, renowned architect (Brazil) •
God Nisanov, billionaire property developer •
Sagadat Nurmagambetov, Defense Minister of Kazakhstan •
Constantine Orbelian, conductor and pianist, 2012 Medal Recipient •
Richard Pierce, a historian of Russian-American studies •
Marcel Prud'homme, Senator (Canada) •
Grigory Rodchenkov, director of
Russia's national antidoping laboratory who later defected and exposed
Russian doping system (awarded prior to the scandal) •
Jacques Rogge, 8th President of the
International Olympic Committee (Belgium) •
Buvaisar Saitiev, three-time Olympic gold medal wrestler •
Vladimir Sangi, Nivkh author, publicist, and language activist •
Ekaterina Semenikhin, honorary consul of Russia in Monaco •
Mrinal Sen, film director (India) •
Dimitris Sioufas, legislator (Greece) •
Dario Salas Sommer, Chilean philosopher •
James W. Symington, a former member of the
U.S. House of Representatives and current attorney at Nossaman LLP/O'Connor & Hannan (US) •
Tô Lâm, currently
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam and
President of Vietnam, awarded during his term as
Minister of Public Security for "the development of bilateral cooperation" between Russia and Vietnam •
Rex Tillerson, U.S. Secretary of State under President Donald Trump, and former CEO of
ExxonMobil •
Mari Törőcsik, Hungarian actress •
Andrzej Wajda, film director (Poland) •
Rowan Williams,
Archbishop of Canterbury, recognised for contributions to friendly relations between Russia and the
UK, and his love of Russian literature (UK) •
Tatjana Ždanoka, politician (Latvia) •
Ban Ki-moon, eighth secretary-general of the United Nations •
Xavier Rolet , CEO London Stock Exchange Group •
Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space •
Alina Zagitova, a Russia competitive figure skater •
Megawati Sukarnoputri, 5th President of Indonesia •
Alexander (Ishein), Archbishop of
Baku and Azerbaijan from 1999 to 2021 •
Péter Szijjártó Hungarian politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, awarded in December 2021 •
Boris Dobrodeev, screenwriter •
Maria Zakharova, Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation •
Vija Artmane, actor •
Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria, Patriarch of the
Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria for his great contribution to the development of cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Arab Republic of Egypt, awarded in September 2009 •
Steven Seagal received for his "
major contribution to the development of international cultural and humanitarian cooperation". •
Avtandil Varsimashvili, Georgian theatre and film director •
Yoko Nagae Ceschina, Japanese philanthropist and patron of the arts •
Alexei Osipov - Theologian and professor •
Daniel Ortega - President / leader of Nicaragua presented US actor
Steven Seagal with his new Russian passport and congratulated him on receiving Russian citizenship. ==See also==