Vladimir Putin has deliberately sidelined his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov amid claims that he torpedoed a summit with Donald Trump, according to a report. Lavrov was “deliberately absent” from a meeting of Russia’s security council on proposals to resume nuclear testing on Wednesday, a source told Russian outlet Kommersant.

The recent fascination with the shortwave channel comes amid fears of a nuclear armageddon, primarily between the US and Russia, after the Cold War

US President Donald Trump said he still favours Budapest as the site of a potential meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on ending the war in Ukraine, though both Washington and the Kremlin have made clear that no talks are imminent.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his top officials on Wednesday to draft proposals for a possible test of nuclear weapons, something Moscow has not done since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

The president is meeting Friday with Hungary's Orbán for their first bilateral talks since Trump returned to the White House.