That Moscow’s foreign minister has outlasted seven US secretaries of state is testament to his usefulness to Vladimir Putin
If Sergei Lavrov, the 72-year-old whiskey-drinking Russian foreign minister, had indeed suffered a heart flutter soon after stepping off the plane in Bali it would have been understandable for a man who has been cast by his leader as his stand-in punchbag at the summit.
Viewing the forces arrayed against him at the G20, President Vladimir Putin deputed Lavrov to attend the two-day event in his stead, and for a brief moment it appeared to have been too much. News agencies reported Lavrov had been sent to hospital for a check-up, only for the Russian foreign ministry to rush out a picture of Lavrov in shorts and sporting an Apple watch and Jean-Michel Basquiat-inspired T-shirt thumbing his notes for his first address at the summit on Tuesday.
