The Moscow Times: Lavrov has fallen out of favor with Putin 0 15

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has apparently fallen out of favor with the country's president, Vladimir Putin. This conclusion was reached by The Moscow Times after it became known that Lavrov was absent from an important meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and that he would not lead the Russian delegation at the G20 summit. The reason for Putin's displeasure was the failure of his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump following an unsuccessful conversation between the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the publication reported on Thursday, November 6.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Putin had decided to appoint Sergey Lavrov as the head of the Russian delegation at the G20 summit, as before, and Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Maxim Oreshkin.

Lavrov "absent by agreement"

Lavrov was also absent from the meeting on November 5 between Putin and the permanent members of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, during which the start of preparations for full-scale nuclear tests was discussed. According to a source from Kommersant, the minister was "absent by agreement" at this meeting.

At the end of October, it was reported that the White House canceled the summit between Trump and Putin in Budapest after Secretary of State Rubio, following a tense conversation with Lavrov on October 21, indicated to the American president that Russia was not showing readiness for negotiations and that holding the meeting would be pointless.

Shortly after the summit was canceled, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil, explaining this by the "lack of serious interest from Russia in the peace process" to end the war unleashed by Moscow in Ukraine.