Russian foreign policy veteran Sergei Lavrov has not been seen in public since late October, and there are rumors that he may have fallen out of favor of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, but the Kremlin denies this, writes Politico.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, meeting with journalists, stressed that Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov is still in office.
The Moscow Times, an independent Russian media outlet based in the Netherlands, reported on the 6th of November that Putin had sidelined Lavrov, and that the minister’s disappearance from the public eye was due to the sudden cancellation of a meeting between Putin and US President Donald Trump by the United States.
The rumors are fueled by the fact that Lavrov did not attend a Kremlin meeting on the 5th of November, at which Putin said he was considering resuming nuclear weapons testing. According to the Kremlin, Lavrov did not attend the meeting by prior arrangement. Information on the Russian Foreign Ministry website shows that
the politician last appeared in public on the 28th of October,
when he participated in an international conference on Eurasian security in Minsk.
The 76-year-old Lavrov will also not lead the Russian delegation to the annual G20 summit. The Kremlin has announced that this year’s delegation will be led by Putin’s deputy chief of staff, Maxim Oreshkin.
The Financial Times reported in October that the planned meeting in Budapest was canceled after Lavrov spoke by phone with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, largely due to Russia’s firm stance.
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