Sergei Lavrov, the longtime head of Russian diplomacy, is facing the most difficult period of his career. After the fiasco of the summit with Trump, his position has weakened, and the absences from the forums indicate a change.
Sergei Lavrov, who has been at the head of Russian diplomacy for more than two decades, is experiencing the most difficult period of his career. According to several Russian media, he fell out of favor with the Kremlin after the fiasco of the planned summit with Donald Trump in Budapest. The American side canceled the meeting after Lavrov, during a phone call with US Secretary of State Mark Rubio, presented Moscow’s arrogant and unyielding position on Ukrainian peace.
It is a hard fall for a veteran of Russian politics. Lavrov, who for years was considered the irreplaceable face of Putin’s foreign policy, was absent from Wednesday’s Security Council meeting, where Vladimir Putin broached the subject of a possible resumption of nuclear tests. According to the diary Kommersant Lavrov was to be “absent by agreement”, which many perceive as a diplomatic postponement.
He also disappeared from the summits
Another signal of Lavrov’s retreat is the loss of a leading position in key international forums. Russia’s delegation to this year’s G20 summit in South Africa will be led by Maxim Oreshkin, the deputy head of the presidential administration, in his place – a decision personally approved by Putin. Lavrov did not even attend the recent ASEAN summit in Malaysia.
Even a year ago, he represented Moscow at the G20 meetings in Bali and the BRICS summit in Brazil, which Putin had to miss due to an international arrest warrant. Lavrov has long been seen as a symbol of the continuity of Russian diplomacy at a time of growing isolation.
However, the canceled summit with Trump could have been the last straw. It was supposed to be a signal that the new American leadership was ready to talk, but Lavrov’s hard line thwarted the plan. “He failed at what was his greatest asset – the ability to keep the channels of communication open,” a source told Kommersant.
The end of the era of the loyal negotiator?
For the 75-year-old diplomat, who was once one of the most respected figures in world politics, this could mean the beginning of the end of an era. In Putin’s system, loyalty does not mean certainty – and Lavrov may have just discovered that even after two decades of service to the Kremlin, he is no longer invulnerable.
