Original sentence: His first major visit was to Russia and in 2006 he hosted Vladimir Putin in a style which was described by some pundits as "borderline-sycophancy" including using the Russian language to converse with him.Klaus received the 2007 Pushkin Medal for the promotion of Russian culture from Putin due to his use of Russian with Putin and with Russian diplomats
Edited sentence: His first major visit was to Russia and in 2006 he hosted Vladimir Putin , where he received the 2007 Pushkin Medal for the promotion of Russian culture