Is Putin's Top Diplomat Falling Out of Favour?
In a move that has set alarm bells ringing for Kremlin watchers, Russia's veteran foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, was conspicuously absent from a landmark meeting of the country's Security Council on Wednesday, 7 November 2025. The meeting, where President Vladimir Putin instructed officials to draft proposals for potential nuclear weapons tests, was a significant moment, one where his most trusted lieutenant would be expected to appear.
Lavrov, however, was the only permanent member of the Council not in attendance. The Russian business daily, Kommersant, reported that his absence was "coordinated," a detail that only served to heighten suspicions.
A Pattern of Exclusion Emerges
The intrigue deepened with the revelation that a more junior official has been selected to lead the Russian delegation at the upcoming G20 summit, a role Lavrov has filled in recent years. This dual snub has forced the question into the open: Has Moscow's top diplomat been sidelined?
The speculation has grown so loud that the Kremlin was compelled to issue a denial, though this has done little to quell the rumours of a serious rift between Lavrov and Putin.
Sources point to a recent diplomatic incident as the potential catalyst. Last month, a planned summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Budapest was called off by the White House. This followed a phone call between Lavrov and the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
According to the Financial Times, it was Lavrov's uncompromising stance during that conversation that prompted the cancellation. Diplomatic sources at the time believed Lavrov had either made a serious error or deliberately gone off-script, effectively torpedoing the summit and setting back a potential US-Russia rapprochement.
The High Cost of Undermining Putin
This failure would have angered Putin, who is keen to engage with Washington on issues from Ukraine to nuclear arms control. More critically, it made the Russian president appear weak and unable to control his own foreign minister.
For a leader like Putin, who values loyalty above all and operates on a principle similar to a football manager never letting a player become bigger than the club, such a public display of insubordination is unforgivable.
If Lavrov has indeed been sidelined, it marks a seismic shift in Russian politics. The 75-year-old has been the face of Russian diplomacy for over two decades and effectively Putin's right-hand man for most of his rule. Known for his abrasive style and as a vociferous cheerleader for the invasion of Ukraine, his potential fall from grace would be a very significant moment indeed.
