According to reports about a hospital stay on the holiday island of Bali, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has shown himself to be in good health – and in shorts. The 72-year-old published a video showing him reading on a terrace with palm trees and the sea in the background.
Lavrov is taking part in the G20 summit of leading industrialized and emerging countries on the Indonesian holiday island as Vladimir Putin’s representative. The Kremlin chief had canceled his participation in the meeting of heads of state and government as a result of the Ukraine war.
In the video, which his own ministry published, Lavrov wore a blue T-shirt with a crown and the words Basquiat – a memory of the US artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who died in 1988. He reported that he was preparing for his appearances at the summit this Tuesday. Reports had previously circulated in Bali that the Russian – one of the longest-serving foreign ministers in the world – had to be hospitalized the night before after his arrival.
“We will adopt the final declaration tomorrow,” Lavrov said in the video. At the same time, he explained that negotiations on the final document of the G20 summit were ongoing. Russia is likely to look primarily at the wording of its war against Ukraine. In the G20, for example, China is Russia’s ally.
Lavrov had previously said on the sidelines of a summit of the Southeast Asian community of states ASEAN in Cambodia that a joint final declaration there had failed due to the dispute over the wording of the situation in Ukraine. He then traveled on to Bali. Like other guests, he was received at the airport by local dancers and soldiers. Then he reportedly had to go to the hospital.
Narrator: Highest form of fake news
“We are here with Sergey Viktorovich in Indonesia and are reading the ticker and can’t believe our eyes,” said ministry spokeswoman Zakharova in Nusa Dua the day after. This is now the highest form of false news. A little later she published the video. In it Lavrov also said: “For ten years it has been written about our president that he was ill. This is a game that is not new in politics.”
Again and again there are reports – with reference to Western secret services or informants – about various serious illnesses of Putin. The Kremlin said that the president is not missing anything. Experts point out that the dissemination of such information is popular with secret services, for example to portray authoritarian politicians as weak and vulnerable. Lavrov urged the Western media to report “more honestly” and “the truth more often.” On the other hand, the USA and the EU accuse Russia of deliberate lies, propaganda and disinformation.
Debate on Lavrov’s Apple devices
Lavrov’s spokeswoman also responded to a discussion on social networks about the minister’s Western technology visible in the video. First she angrily rejected the fact that the minister was wearing a watch from the US company Apple. When a Russian commentator then asked whether the minister’s iPhone posed a risk due to possible access by secret services, Zakharova thanked him for worrying about security.
“But I also see it that we should have developed our phones and computers ourselves,” said Zakharova. Russian politicians are often criticized for railing against the West while enjoying its technological advances.
