Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that rumors about loss of popularity and plan to replace Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are “completely false”. According to Politico Magazine, the dismissal of the head of diplomacy in Russia is being mentioned more and more often, writes TASR.
- The Kremlin spokesman denied rumors about the replacement of Foreign Minister Lavrov.
- The head of diplomacy Lavrov is not present at public events.
- The United States has canceled a summit in Budapest after tensions with Russia.
- Lavrov will not lead the Russian delegation at the G20 meeting.
- Lavrov is an ally of President Putin and has been in charge of the department for 21 years.
Peskov told reporters at a press briefing that Lavrov remains in his position. He was reacting to Thursday’s report by The Moscow Times newspaper, according to which Russian President Vladimir Putin pulled Lavrov out of the public eye after the United States canceled a planned presidential summit in Budapest.
Further expansion of this theory was also helped by the fact that Lavrov was not physically present in the Kremlin on Wednesday during the announcement of Russia’s consideration of resuming nuclear tests. The Kremlin-linked Russian newspaper Kommersant wrote that this was done “after a prior agreement”.
According to data from the website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lavrov last appeared in public on October 28, when he participated in the international conference on Eurasian security in Minsk, Belarus.
Lavrov will also not lead the Russian delegation at the G20 meeting this year despite the fact that, according to Politico, it is normally indicative of his status. The Kremlin announced this week that the delegation in Johannesburg, South Africa will be led by the deputy head of Putin’s administration, Maxim Oreshkin.
The Financial Times (FT) wrote at the end of last month that the United States decided to cancel the meeting in Budapest after a conversation between foreign ministers Marco Rubio and Lavrov because of Russia’s uncompromising approach. Lavrov is a longtime ally of President Putin and has been the head of the Department of Diplomacy for more than 21 years.
