Russian President Vladimir Putin denied on Thursday rumors of a rift between him and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. In recent weeks, many Russian and Western media outlets reported a fallout between Putin and Lavrov following the latter's phone call with his American counterpart Marco Rubio, just ahead of the cancellation of the Putin-Trump summit in Budapest and the imposition of sanctions on Russia's two largest oil companies. Rumors also spread about the loss of the Russian foreign minister's standing after his absence from a meeting Putin held with permanent members of the Russian Security Council. These rumors also claimed that Lavrov was excluded from leading the Russian delegation to the G20 and ASEAN summits later. Commenting on the rumors, Putin said on Thursday in a statement carried by Russian news agency TASS: "This is nonsense," denying any rift or sidelining between him and his foreign minister. He explained that Lavrov has a special schedule, adding: "He has a special schedule, he has informed me about it, told me what he will do and when, and he is doing it, he is preparing for a meeting with American partners." On Friday, Lavrov jokingly responded to a journalist's question about his recent absence, smiling and saying: "I'm still in hiding," before Putin's meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in the Kremlin. Earlier this month, the Kremlin denied speculation that Lavrov had fallen out of favor with Putin after the failure to organize a Russia-US summit in Budapest last month. Lavrov, 75, has served as Russia's foreign minister for many years.
