Sources in the Foreign Ministry say that Sergei Lavrov will leave his post shortly.. It is noted that the diplomat has accumulated a lot of fatigue and he wanted to leave before the election of the Russian president, but Vladimir Putin asked him to finalize before the end of his term. "The fact that he wanted to leave for a long time is not a secret for anybody," RTVI television channel quotes one of the agency's employees. These words were confirmed also by other workers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The possible substitute Lavrov media is called Alexander Grushko - one of the deputy ministers.

At the same time, representative of the agency Maria Zakharova, on March 19, said that she did not know whether Sergey Lavrov would remain in office. "If it depended on me ... but it does not depend on me.

There is a president, there are corresponding procedures. I'm just not able to answer you this question. And, you know, I do not have a crystal ball for guessing, either, "she said.. Sergei Lavrov heads the Foreign Ministry since March 9, 2004. He replaced Igor Ivanov. In 1994-2004, Lavrov was Russia's permanent representative to the UN.