New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday condoled the death of Russian Ambassador to India Alexander Kadakin, saying he was an “admirable diplomat and a great friend of India”. He was 67.


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Kadakin, who had been an Ambassador to India since 2009, died of a heart failure on Thursday.


“Deeply saddened at the passing away of Ambassador Alexander,” the prime minister tweeted.


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Kadakin was “a fluent Hindi speaker who tirelessly contributed to stronger India-Russia ties,” PM Modi said.


The exact cause of his death was not immediately known.


Earlier, MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup in a tweet message said, "In Kadakin, we lost a valued friend who nurtured India-Russia relationship for many decades as a distinguished Russian diplomat."


Kadakin had earlier served as the ambassador to India between 1999 and 2004.


In an interview last year, Kadakin had lauded the efforts of the two governments in forging closer ties in the backdrop of the rapid development of Indo-US relations.


“There are many areas where the interests of the two countries coincide. India as a rising global power with dynamic economic growth and enormous human resources – no doubt it is very attractive to many countries,“ he said.