Russia Dismisses ‘Fake’ News Report on Lavrov Heart Problems at G20
HEART? WHAT HEART?
Russia cried foul Monday after a report that its veteran foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, had been taken to hospital with a suspected heart problem after arriving on the Indonesian island Bali for the G20 summit. The Associated Press, citing Indonesian officials, reported that the 72-year-old was taken to hospital after arriving in Bali on Sunday night. But Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the report “the height of fakery” and posted a video of her boss sitting on a balcony in T-shirt and shorts, enjoying the Bali sunshine. “Excuse me, but they’re writing here that you’ve been hospitalized?” she asks him. “They’ve been writing about our president for 10 years that he’s fallen ill. It’s a game that is not new in politics,” Lavrov replies, with his usual hangdog expression. Vladimir Putin himself is missing the summit, apparently fearful it would draw attention to his international isolation.