Vladimir Putin has deliberately sidelined his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov amid claims that he torpedoed a summit with Donald Trump, according to a report.
Lavrov was “deliberately absent” from a meeting of Russia’s security council on proposals to resume nuclear testing on Wednesday, a source told Russian outlet Kommersant.
The veteran minister, 75, was also cast aside as head of the Russian delegation for the G20 summit later this month and replaced by Putin’s deputy chief of staff, Maxim Oreshkin.
For two weeks in a row, the Foreign Ministry has also not disclosed Lavrov's travel plans and speaking engagements for the following week.
The developments have fuelled speculation that Lavrov, who has served as foreign minister for more than two decades, may have fallen from Putin's good graces.
The Moscow Times, based in Amsterdam, reported that Putin had ‘sent Lavrov into disgrace’ after a proposed summit with Donald Trump in Budapest fell through last month.
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 Financial Times cited a source as suggesting that Lavrov's conversation with Rubio had put Washington off.
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".
Lavrov subsequently repeated maximalist rhetoric about the need to address the “root causes” of the conflict, before Trump sanctioned Russia’s two largest oil companies, citing “Putin's refusal to end this senseless war”.
The Kremlin on Friday dismissed speculation that Lavrov had fallen out of favour with Putin after the efforts to organise the summit were put on ice.
Asked on Friday if Lavrov was in trouble with Putin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the idea.
"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."
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested on Friday that the FT article had been published to stoke speculation that was unhelpful to Moscow and part of what she called a hybrid war against Russia.
Putin has made it clear that, aside from the Ukraine issue, he believes that a rapprochement between Moscow and Washington is in Russia's national interest and important for global security, as the two countries possess vast nuclear arsenals.
