Latvian state award winners named

Two individuals will receive the Order of the Three Stars (Second Class), namely Rīga's Roman Catholic Archbishop Zbigņevs Stankevičs and former German finance minister Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble, according to an official announcement fro Rīga Castle.

Among those scooping the Third Class variant of the award is organist Iveta Apkalna while British journalist and writer Edward Lucas, violinist Juris Jēkabsons, ballet dancer and choreographer Aleksandra Kolbina, artists Sandra Krastiņa and Miervaldis Polis and several distinguished medics and public officials.

The Order of the Three Stars was established in 1924 in commemoration of the establishment of the independent Latvian state.  It was reinstated in 1994. The motto for the Order of the Three Stars is “Per aspera ad astra” meaning through hardships to the stars is awarded to people for meritorious service on behalf of Latvia.

Meanwhile the military Order of Viesturs (First class) is picked up by Nowegian armed forces commander Haakon Bruun-Hanssen and his Canadian counterpart Jonathan H.Vance with lower variants of the order distributed among various ranks and branches of the military services, both domestic and foreign as well as representatives of emergency services and other agencies.

The Cross of Recognition goes to Imants Lancmanis, the driving force behind the restoration of Rundale palace, plus Wolfgang Ischinger, organizer of the Munich Security Conference, and a range of people in the worlds of business and public administration, charities and other areas of life.

You can read about the full range of state awards and the reasons for which they are handed out at the website of the President.

Nor was it one-way traffic as far as high state awards were concerned - Latvian orchestral conductor Andris Nelsons has also received a high state award from the United Kingdom, as he tweeted.