The Kremlin shot down rumors that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had been sacked, calling the reports “completely untrue.”

Speculation began to swirl around the veteran foreign minister this week when he was notably absent from a meeting on Wednesday with the permanent members of the Russian Security Council. Sources told Russia’s Kommersant special correspondent, Andrei Kolesnikov, that his absence was coordinated and “by agreement,” without further elaboration.