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Late president Brazauskas to be named Vilnius' honorary citizen

BC, Vilnius, 21.04.2015.Print version

On Tuesday, 21 April, the late president Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas will be post-mortem named Vilnius' honorary citizen, informs LETA/ELTA.

 

The solemn ceremony will be attended by former president's relatives and friends, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius, members of the Social Democratic Party and the outgoing Vilnius mayor Arturas Zuokas.

 

2015 marks the 15th anniversary since the passing of Brazauskas. He was the first president after Lithuania regained independence. His contributed to Lithuania's accession to NATO and the European Union.

 

Brazauskas received numerous awards: the Grand Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great, the Baltic Peace Prize, the Independence Medal, the Order of Vytautas the Great with the Golden Chain (the highest state award), the Lithuanian Millennium Star and nearly 20 foreign state awards.

 

The name of Vilnius' honorary citizen has been bestowed for exclusive merits to Lithuania and Vilnius since 1996.

 

The then foreign minister of Iceland Ion Baldvin Hannibalsson was named the first Vilnius' honorary citizen. Other prominent people to receive the title include: US president Ronald Reagan, speaker of the US House of Representatives John Dennis Hastert, advisor to US president on national security Zbigniew Brzezinski, Israeli president Shimon Peres.





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