PM Modi conferred with Russia’s highest civilian honour Order of St Andrew the Apostle | Watch

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred with Russia's highest civilian honour, Order of St Andrew the Apostle by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. PM Modi is on a two-day visit to Moscow.

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Putin said the award is a “testimony to Russia's sincere gratitude” for Modi's “significant contribution” to strengthening ties between the two nations.

“You have always actively advocated broader contacts with our country. When you were the CM of Gujarat, you came up with initiatives to twinning your state with the Russian region,” Putin said.

Lauding Modi's contribution towards “building a resilient framework for Russian Indian cooperation,” Putin said, "… both our nations are defending the principle of multipolarity for the sake of stability, global and regional security and working closely in BRICS and SCO."

Upon receiving the award, PM Modi extended his heartfelt gratitude to President Putin for honouring him with Russia's highest civilian honour.

“This honour is not just mine, this is the honour of 140 crore Indians. This is the honour of the centuries-old deep friendship and mutual trust between India and Russia. This is the honour of our special and privileged strategic partnership,” PM Modi said.

In the past 2.5 decades, PM Modi said, under Putin's leadership, India-Russia relations have strengthened in all directions and have scaled new heights each time.

"The foundation of strategic ties between the two nations that you had laid has only further strengthened with the passing of time. Our mutual cooperation, based on people-to-partnership, is becoming the hope and guarantee of a better future of our people..." he added.

'Devastating blow to peace efforts'

As PM Modi hugged Putin during a recent meeting, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy strongly condemned him and said it a “huge disappointment and a devastating blow”.

Russia had launched an attack on Ukraine on 24 February 2022. On Monday, Russia rained missiles across Ukraine, killing at least 37 civilians and damaging Kyiv's main children's hospital in the deadliest air strike in months, officials said.

“It is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world's largest democracy hug the world's most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X (fromerly Twitter).