Denies News of Foreign Minister Lavrov being taken to a hospital in Bali, Russian Foreign Ministry: The peak of lies

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. (Wikimedia Commons/Yelakutmen

JAKARTA - Russia on Monday denied that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was taken to hospital, after arriving on the Indonesian island of Bali for the G20 summit.

"This, of course, is the pinnacle of falsehood", said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova.

The comments came after The Associated Press said three Indonesian government and medical officials told them the senior Russian diplomat was hospitalized.

Officials said he was taken to Sanglah Hospital (now Prof dr I Goesti Ngoerah Gde Ngoerah Hospital) in the provincial capital, Denpasar. The hospital did not immediately comment.

Asked about the report, Foreign Minister Lavrov said Western journalists had been writing lies for a decade that President Vladimir Putin was sick.

"This is the kind of game that is not new in politics", said Lavrov, 72, with an ironic smile, citing Reuters.

"Western journalists have to be more honest, they have to write the truth."

Meanwhile, Bali Governor I Wayan Koster was quoted as saying on Monday, Foreign Minister Lavrov is in good health after he was taken to the hospital for a medical check-up and has been discharged from the hospital.

It is known, Foreign Minister Lavrov represented President Putin at the G20 Summit. He arrived in Bali on Sunday, after participating in a meeting organized by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Cambodia over the weekend.