The Kremlin has denied rumors that the Russian foreign minister has fallen out of favor after his efforts to organize a summit between him and the Russian president fell through last month.
Lavrov, 75, a veteran Soviet-era diplomat known for his forceful negotiating style, was absent from a major Kremlin meeting this week that he would normally attend, and Putin has chosen someone else to head the Russian delegation to the G20 summit later this month in South Africa, a role Lavrov has held in the past.
For two weeks, too, the Foreign Ministry has not announced Lavrov’s travel plans and speaking engagements for the coming week.
What sparked the rumors of Lavrov’s disfavor
The developments have fueled speculation that Lavrov, who has served as foreign minister for more than two decades, may have fallen out of favor with Putin over the collapse of plans for the Budapest summit.
Asked about it today, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the rumour.
“I will give you a short answer: there is nothing true in this information,” Peskov told reporters.
When asked to confirm that Lavrov would continue in his current post, he replied: “Absolutely. Lavrov works, of course, as foreign minister.”
Diplomatic tensions with the US
Lavrov spoke by phone with his US counterpart Marco Rubio on October 20 about a possible summit, days after it was announced by Trump following a phone call with Putin.
The next day, Trump said he didn’t want to have a meeting that would be a “waste of time.” He later stated that he canceled the meeting because it “didn’t seem right.”
Trump has sought rapprochement with Moscow and held a summit in Alaska with Putin in August. But he has backed calls for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine with forces on both sides in their current positions, while Moscow has said it wants Kiev to hand over more ground.
Reuters and other media reported that Washington canceled the new summit after Lavrov’s ministry sent a message indicating Moscow was not ready to bow to hard-line demands on Ukraine. The British Financial Times, citing a source, wrote that Lavrov’s conversation with Rubio discouraged Washington.
“Lavrov is obviously tired and seems to think he has better things to do than deal with the US, whatever Putin may want,” the source said, according to the FT.
New peak from Zakharova
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested today that the FT article was published to fuel speculation that does not serve Moscow and is related to what she called a hybrid war against Russia.
Putin has made it clear that, aside from the Ukrainian issue, he believes a rapprochement between Moscow and Washington is in Russia’s national interest and important to global security given that the two countries possess massive nuclear arsenals.
