Lavrov to attend Munich conference instead of Putin

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will represent Russia at the Munich Security Conference.

"We expect a very serious delegation from Russia. The Foreign Minister will be here. I have been told that other senior representatives of the Russian leadership will also come," the chairman of the conference Wolfgang Ischinger said.

It is reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin has refused to visit the conference twice. "I sent an invitation to the President of the Russian Federation (Vladimir Putin) last September, and received a reply that he won't be able to attend it in the autumn ... I sent another letter in December, with a re-invitation, perhaps he wanted to change his mind, because it [the conference] is an interesting opportunity to explain an unusual line of policy, but the answer was the same," RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.