ISTANBUL

Russia on Monday denied reports from international news outlets claiming that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was hospitalized ahead of the G-20 summit in the Indonesian city of Bali.

“Sergey Viktorovich and I are reading a tape here in Indonesia and we don’t believe our eyes: it turns out he is hospitalized. This is, of course, the aerobatics of fakes,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram.

Zakharova later published a video of Lavrov responding to reports of him being hospitalized.

“For about ten years, they have been writing about our president that he is ill. It’​​​​​​​s kind of a play, not new in politics,” Lavrov said in the video.

Responding to Zakharova asking what he wants to wish from Western journalists, Lavrov said: “To be more honest, to write truth in their reports, not limit reports by only one point of view.”​​​​​​​