Russia's Foreign Minster Lavrov hospitalized in Bali, Moscow denies

Russia's Foreign Ministry slammed reports that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was hospitalized in Bali ahead of the G20 summit as being "the height of fakery."

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with Myanmar's military leader Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, August 3, 2022. (photo credit: RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with Myanmar's military leader Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, August 3, 2022.
(photo credit: RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)

Russia's Foreign Ministry on Monday denied an Associated Press report that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had been taken to hospital, casting the report as the "height of fakery."

Associated Press, citing Indonesian officials, said that Lavrov was taken to hospital after arriving in Indonesia's Bali island for the G20 summit.

'The height of fakery'

"This, of course, is the height of fakery," Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"Sergei Viktrovich [Lavrov] and I are reading the news wires and cannot believe our eyes."

Zakharova posted a video of Lavrov, President Vladimir Putin's foreign minister since 2004, sitting outdoors on a patio, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt and reading documents.

Asked about the report, Lavrov said Western journalists had been writing falsely for a decade that Putin was ill.

"This is a kind of game that is not new in politics," Lavrov, 72, said with an ironic smile. "Western journalists need to be more truthful - they need to write the truth."

Lavrov was taken to hospital for a "check-up" at the Sanglah hospital and he "immediately returned," said Bali Governor I Wayan Koster.