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Ulviyya Poladova

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French Ambassador to Lithuania Lucie Stepanyan has awarded former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis the Knight’s Cross of the French Legion of Honour.

The decision is noteworthy given Landsbergis’s position on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict during his tenure as Lithuania’s foreign minister. Under Landsbergis, Lithuania was among the European countries that openly supported Armenia and took positions favorable to Armenian separatist forces in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

In 2024, the then Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis made a number of anti-Azerbaijani statements at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. А year earlier, Landsbergis announced Lithuania would provide €350,000 in humanitarian aid to Armenia for people who had left Karabakh.

Against this backdrop, the decision by France to honor Landsbergis raises questions about the political message behind the award, particularly given France’s own controversial approach to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.

As for Lucie Stepanyan, she graduated from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in 2000 and obtained a postgraduate degree in political science in 2001. She later studied Russian at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO).

Stepanyan began her professional career in international university cooperation, working in Russia from 2001 to 2003 and in Armenia from 2004 to 2006.

She joined France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs in 2008, working in the Directorate for Continental Europe, where she was responsible for Central Asian countries.

In 2011, she was appointed to the French Embassy in Turkmenistan, where she served as First Counsellor and Director of the French Institute.

After returning to Paris in 2018, Stepanyan joined the economic diplomacy directorate, where she worked on supporting France’s foreign trade and strengthening the country’s economic attractiveness.

From 2021 to 2025, she served at the French Embassy in Poland as Deputy Head of Mission and First Counsellor. She was later appointed France’s ambassador to the Republic of Lithuania.

Stepanyan was also awarded the silver grade of the Medal of Honour of France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs for her services following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.

Image: Julius Kalinskas / ELTA