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Mystery Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister who has disappeared from public view

Sergei Lavrov has not appeared in public for days. The Kremlin denies tensions with Putin, but his absence from the Security Council fuels suspicion

What has happened to Sergei Lavrov? The Russian Foreign Minister has not appeared in public for several days and his absence at key moments in Russian politics is raising questions both inside and outside Moscow. Today, after a long silence, the Tass news agency released a brief statement attributed to the minister: according to Lavrov, Moscow has not yet received clarification from Washington on President Donald Trump’s words regarding the resumption of nuclear testing.

However, this message is not enough to dispel doubts. Sergei Lavrov’s absence from the Security Council chaired by Vladimir Putin last Wednesday seemed unusual, especially at a time when the president has resumed his harsh tone against the West, threatening “an adequate response” in the event of nuclear tests by others.

The Kremlin’s denials and rumours of friction with Putin

The Kremlin has attempted to close the case by calling reports that Lavrov has fallen out of favour with Putin “completely false”. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Tass, reiterated that “Lavrov continues to work as foreign minister” and called the rumours spread by independent media outlets baseless.

However, several international sources, including The Moscow Times, have relaunched rumours of a deterioration in relations between Lavrov and the president. According to these reports, the clash dates back to a conversation described as “disastrous” between the minister and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, which took place shortly before the announcement of new US sanctions against Russian oil companies and the cancellation of the Putin-Trump summit scheduled in Budapest.

Signs of frostiness and a heavy exclusion

In videos released by the Kremlin relating to the 5 November meeting of the Russian Security Council, Sergei Lavrov does not appear among the participants, despite being a permanent member of that body. The hypothesis of a cooling of relations with Putin was reinforced by the decision, confirmed by Peskov, to entrust the leadership of the Russian delegation to the G20 not to Lavrov, but to Maxim Oreshkin, deputy chief of staff of the Kremlin.

Meanwhile, TASS’s official channels and Telegram remain silent on the minister’s activities, while spokeswoman Maria Zakharova continues to take centre stage, openly attacking Italy after the collapse of the Torre dei Conti in Rome with the phrase: ‘Italy is wasting money supporting Kiev and the country is collapsing’.

The longest-serving minister in post-Soviet Russia

Seventy-five years old and in office since 2004, Sergei Lavrov is the longest-serving foreign minister of the Russian Federation since the end of the USSR. A former ambassador to the United Nations, he has been the face of Moscow’s diplomacy during the most delicate phases of relations with the West: from the war in Georgia in 2008 to the annexation of Crimea in 2014, to the invasion of Ukraine, which he has firmly supported.

His absence, in a context of growing internal tension and political purges, therefore appears far from insignificant.

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