The 2007 National Awards were presented for outstanding achievements in science and technology, literature and the arts, and in the humanitarian field.
The following people won national awards for their achievements in science and technology: senior fellow of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Slavic Studies Andrei Zaliznyak, chief researcher of the V.A. Steklov Mathematical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Arnold, and Chair of the Division of Polymer Physics and Crystallophysics of the Department of Physics of Moscow State University Alexei Khokhlov.
Winners of national awards in literature and the arts were sculptor Andrei Kovalchuk, actress Alisa Freindlikh and the staff of the State Museum of Military History and Nature Reserve Kulikovo Pole.
A national award for outstanding achievement in the humanitarian field was awarded to Jacques Chirac, former President of France, and the first foreign citizen to win a Russian national award.
The National Awards ceremony is traditionally held on the Day of Russia in the Grand Kremlin Palace.
Following the ceremony there will be a reception on behalf of the head of state to celebrate the Day of Russia and in honor of the winners of the 2007 National Awards in the Kremlin's Ivanovsky Square.