Mikhail Prokhorov will receive France's highest award, the Legion of Honor, four years after being detained there on suspicion of what authorities called "pimping," an embassy press service official said.
Prokhorov will receive the Chevalier, or Knight, designation of the decoration at the French Embassy in Moscow on March 14, the official said Thursday, declining to be identified because of government policy. The honor is in recognition of Prokhorov's efforts to deepen cultural ties between the two countries.
French police held Prokhorov for several days in January 2007 in Courchevel, where he was vacationing with a group of friends that included eight young women who were mistakenly believed to be prostitutes, the billionaire said in an interview last year. As late as February 2009, Prokhorov refused to do business with France until the government apologized, which it did last year.
(Bloomberg)
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