Schrödinger's Lavrov: the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry has disappeared, but the Kremlin assures that everything is fine

The absence of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a key meeting of the Security Council and his unexpected suspension from participation in the G20 summit caused a wave of rumors that the Kremlin's top diplomat had lost the favor of Vladimir Putin. But the Kremlin hastily declared that Lavrov is "still a minister. " Focus collected everything that is known.

Lavrov's absence was particularly noticeable at the meeting, where the Russian president instructed government officials to develop proposals for a possible resumption of nuclear testing. The 75-year-old foreign minister was the only permanent member of the Council absent. The Kremlin's decision to appoint a junior official as the head of the Russian delegation at the G20 summit caused an even greater resonance, a role that Lavrov himself had filled for years.

It was after this that analysts and political scientists talked about possible internal reshuffles in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the loss of trust on the part of Putin. The Kremlin hastened to deny the rumors, but a little tentatively. Dmytro Peskov, Putin's press secretary, said that the publications of the Western and Ukrainian media that the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov "fell out of favor" with the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, are completely untrue.

"There is nothing true in these reports," he said, answering questions at the briefing. "Of course, Lavrov works as the Minister of Foreign Affairs," Dmytro Peskov said in response to the question of whether Lavrov continues his work.

And Lavrov's subordinate, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Maria Zakharova, said that the publication of the Financial Times that it was Lavrov's tough position during the conversation with the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was one of the reasons for the freezing of the negotiations on Ukraine and the cancellation of the summit in Budapest, "set the wheels in motion.

" "It was needed in order to start water circles from this publication. So that it was the same source. You will see how this topic began to be repeated later," said Zakharova.

The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already started a tirade about the fact that everything is fine with her patron, and the rumors that he has fallen out of favor are "tricks of the West", and the publication of the FT about the meeting between Sergey Lavrov and the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is "part of the information war against Russia.

" "It is not necessary to comment on what is written in this article, it is necessary to comment on another element of the information war, a part of the hybrid war, which is unleashed against Russia by the collective West, its Anglo-Saxon engine. And peace, stability and security in Europe is an anti-goal for them," Zakharova said, confirming Lavrov's absence at the meeting, but assured: "This happens.

" At the same time, the official Russian mass media, such as TASS, hastily gave news on behalf of Lavrov, imitating his presence in the information space: the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry allegedly sent greetings to the participants of the "Russian Abroad" festival, which opened in Moscow. We will remind you that Lavrov was the face of Russian diplomacy for more than two decades, survived several ministers of defense and prime ministers, remaining a permanent element of Putin's system.