Lavrov Expelled From Another Russian Delegation
- 27.11.2025, 23:29
The Russian Foreign Minister will not go to the third major event.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will not participate in the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting for the first time since 2022. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday, Nov. 27, that Lavrov's deputy Alexander Grushko will lead the Russian delegation to the meeting in Vienna on Dec. 4-5. Zakharova did not specify the reasons for the replacement.
Earlier, Sergei Lavrov lost the status of the head of the Russian delegation at the G20 summit. To this forum, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent the deputy head of the Kremlin administration Maxim Oreshkin. Lavrov also did not go to the ASEAN summit in Malaysia: there Russia was represented by Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk.
According to Reuters, Lavrov almost stopped appearing at major international events after US President Donald Trump canceled his summit with Putin on Ukraine in Budapest. Following this, the US imposed sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil - the first time since Trump returned to the White House.
The Budapest summit was canceled after Lavrov's phone call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on October 20, during which the terms of the summit were discussed. The agency's interlocutors claimed that Trump decided to cancel the talks on Rubio's advice: Lavrov allegedly made ultimatums on Ukraine.
Since then, as Lavrov himself admitted, the US Secretary of State has not contacted him again. The Russian diplomatic chief also did not attend a Nov. 5 meeting of the Russian Security Council, where possible nuclear tests were discussed, nor did he participate in Russian-Kazakh talks in Moscow on Nov. 12.
In the meantime, Vladimir Putin categorically denied that Sergei Lavrov was in disfavor after his summit with Trump was disrupted. "That's nonsense. Lavrov has not fallen into any disgrace. He has his own work schedule. He reported to me, told me what he would do, at what time. That's what he's doing. He is preparing for a meeting with American partners," Putin said at a press conference following his visit to Bishkek on November 27.