RUSSIA’S LAVROV DENIES THAT HE WAS TAKEN TO HOSPITAL AT G20

NUSA DUA, INDONESIA: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday dismissed a news agency report that he had been taken to hospital with a heart condition, scolding Western journalists for what he cast as false reporting.

Associated Press, citing Indonesian officials, said that Lavrov had been taken to hospital after arriving on the island of Bali for a Group of 20 summit. AP said Lavrov, 72, had been treated for a heart condition.

“This, of course, is the height of fakery,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. Zakharova posted a video of Lavrov, 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 [Vladimir] Putin, 70, was ill.

“This is a kind of game that is not new in politics,” Lavrov said. “Western journalists need to be more truthful - they need to write the truth.”