The Kremlin has moved to dismiss mounting speculation that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has fallen out of favour with President Vladimir Putin.
The rumours emerged after efforts to arrange a summit between the Russian leader and Donald Trump were reportedly put on hold last month.
Mr Lavrov, 75, a seasoned Soviet-era diplomat renowned for his robust negotiating style, has been conspicuously absent from a significant Kremlin meeting he would typically attend this week.
Furthermore, Mr Putin opted for an alternative representative at the upcoming G20 summit in South Africa, a role historically filled by the foreign minister.
Adding to the intrigue, the Foreign Ministry has failed to disclose Mr Lavrov’s travel plans and speaking engagements for the past two consecutive weeks.
These developments have fuelled suggestions that Mr Lavrov, who has served as foreign minister for more than two decades, may have incurred Mr Putin’s displeasure following the cancellation of the proposed Budapest summit.
However, when questioned on Friday about Mr Lavrov’s standing with the president, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov firmly rejected the notion.
“I will give you a brief answer: there is nothing true in these reports,” Peskov told reporters.
Asked to confirm that Lavrov would continue to work in his current role, Peskov added: “Absolutely. Lavrov is working as foreign minister, of course.”
Lavrov spoke by phone to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on 20 October to discuss the possible summit, days after it was announced by Trump following a phone call with Putin.
The next day, Trump said that he did not want to hold a meeting that would be “a waste of time”. He later said he had cancelled the summit because it “just didn’t feel right”.
Trump has sought a 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 at their present positions, while Moscow has said it wants Kyiv to yield more territory.
Reuters and other media reported that Washington called off the new summit after Lavrov’s ministry sent a message indicating Moscow was not prepared to yield on hardline demands over Ukraine.
Financial Times cited a source as suggesting that Lavrov’s conversation with Rubio had put Washington off.
