(Denpasar) Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is in good health after undergoing two medical examinations at a hospital in Bali, an Indonesian health ministry official said on Monday, after Russia denied his hospitalization.
Posted at 9:43 a.m.
Russia had earlier, with video support, denied information published on the hospitalization of the head of Russian diplomacy upon his arrival at the G20 in Bali, Indonesia.
“It’s from fake of the highest level,” the minister’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said on Telegram.
She then published a video of the minister, sitting in shorts on a terrace, in which he brushed off rumors about his health and advised Western journalists “to write the truth more often”.
According to an Indonesian official, the head of Russian diplomacy is “in good health”: “He came to the hospital on his arrival in Bali (Sunday evening) to undergo examinations”, indicated a representative of the Indonesian Ministry of Health. Cheers, Sunarto, who like many Indonesians only has one name.
“He came back earlier (Monday) for a new examination and thank God he is doing well,” he added, interviewed by AFP.
A spokesman for Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar, the capital of Bali, said a foreign delegation had visited the establishment, without further details.
Head of Russian diplomacy since 2004, Sergei Lavrov, 72, a renowned inveterate smoker and whiskey lover, represents President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit.
The Kremlin cited scheduling problems but the absence of the Russian president was seen as a sign of isolation due to the invasion of Ukraine launched on February 24.