Sergei Lavrov’s absence from a key Kremlin security council meeting and his exclusion from Russia’s G20 delegation have sparked speculation that the veteran foreign minister may have fallen out of favour with President Vladimir Putin.
The 75-year-old diplomat was the only permanent member of the security council missing from last Tuesday’s session, during which Putin instructed officials to draw up proposals on the possible resumption of nuclear weapons testing. The well-connected Kommersant newspaper reported that Lavrov’s absence was “agreed in advance”.
Adding to the intrigue, Lavrov was also left off Russia’s delegation to the forthcoming G20 summit in South Africa, with a more junior official appointed in his place. The Kremlin dismissed rumours of a rift as “absolutely untrue”, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisting that “everything is fine” and that Lavrov “continues to work”.
Speculation about Putin’s displeasure with Lavrov first emerged after US President Donald Trump cancelled a planned summit with the Russian leader in Budapest last month. According to media reports, the meeting was shelved after a tense call between Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during which US officials were taken aback by Lavrov’s demands and his rigid insistence on Russia’s maximalist positions in Ukraine peace talks.
A former high-ranking Kremlin official told the Guardian that Lavrov had “mishandled” his conversation with Rubio and “made a diplomatic mess of it”. The source said Lavrov pressed an uncompromising set of demands to appear patriotic in the eyes of the Kremlin, a stance that ultimately proved counterproductive. The source added that Putin had previously shown irritation with Lavrov’s increasingly confrontational tone and his diminishing ability to project diplomatic finesse.
Boris Bondarev, a former senior diplomat who resigned after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, said it would be highly uncharacteristic for Lavrov to step outside his role as a mere conveyor of Putin’s views. “Putin has been very comfortable working with Lavrov all these years because Sergei Viktorovich is a seasoned bureaucrat,” Bondarev said. “He knows perfectly well that you should never say anything that does not come from the Kremlin.”
