The Kremlin has dismissed speculation that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov may be on his way out after his notable absence from a high-level Security Council meeting where President Vladimir Putin discussed possible nuclear tests, CNN reported.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Lavrov “continues to serve” as foreign minister, calling reports of a government shake-up “false.”
Kommersant reports that Sergey Lavrov was the only permanent member of Russia’s Security Council absent from Putin’s Wednesday meeting, where proposals on resuming nuclear tests were discussed.
— Brian McDonald (@27khv) November 7, 2025
The paper says his absence was “agreed in advance.”
In a a break with previous… pic.twitter.com/cDsuWE0Qon
His absence, however, raised eyebrows after Putin appointed a junior official, Maxim Oreshkin, to lead Russia’s delegation to the G20 Summit in Johannesburg.
Lavrov’s no-show followed the collapse of a planned Trump-Putin summit in Budapest, which Lavrov had been brokering before U.S. officials froze talks over Moscow’s stance on Ukraine.
A fixture of Russian diplomacy for more than two decades, Lavrov has remained a loyal defender of Putin’s foreign policy — from Crimea to Syria and Ukraine — but analysts say his sidelining could hint at rising tensions inside the Kremlin.
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TIPP Staff
TIPP Staff
