Russia dismisses uproar as business as usual
The Kremlin on Wednesday downplayed President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey and instead focused on ways that Russia and the United States can cooperate on world affairs such as Syria.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Washington, talking about collaboration without raising the question of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, according to the White House.
Comey, who was fired Tuesday, was leading the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation on Russia’s suspected interference in the campaign and possible collusion with Trump associates.
In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said Comey’s dismissal does not concern Russia and would not influence ties between the countries.
“This is the U.S. president’s sovereign decision which does not have anything to do with Russia and should not have anything to do with Russia,” said Dmitry Peskov, according to the Associated Press.
Trump, in his meeting with Lavrov, “emphasized the need to work together to end the conflict in Syria, in particular underscoring the need for Russia to rein in the Assad regime, Iran, and Iranian proxies,” the White House said.
Trump said the U.S. expects Russia to fully implement the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine and raised “the possibility of broader cooperation on resolving conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere,” according to a White House statement.
Earlier at the State Department, Lavrov made a joke when a reporter asked whether Comey’s firing would “cast a shadow on your talks.”
“Was he fired?” Lavrov asked. The reporter answered “yes.” Lavrov continued: “You are kidding. You are kidding.” He then waved his hand with a nod of his head and walked away with a smiling Tillerson.
Speaking at the Russian Embassy after the meetings, Lavrov called the questions about election interference “noise.”
“I believe that politicians are damaging the political system of the U.S., trying to pretend someone is controlling America from the outside,” Lavrov said through a translator.
Rep. Eliot Engel of New Jersey, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Relations Committee, dismissed Wednesday’s meetings with Lavrov as a “photo op and a wasted opportunity.”
“It appears that the President and Secretary Tillerson were more focused on making friends with Minister Lavrov than confronting Putin’s envoy on Russia’s troubling behavior,” Engel said in a statement.
John Bolton, a foreign policy adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign, said it was a mistake for the administration not to bring up election interference.
“I don’t think the president should have raised it, but I think it should have been raised by Tillerson,” said Bolton, who was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush.
Michael McFaul, who was U.S. ambassador to Russia under President Obama, called the White House message on Trump’s meeting with Lavrov “happy talk.”
The White House is “not going to be able to run away from the rest of us — foreign policy experts, senators, national security experts — who want to know about what Russia did,” he said.
Derek Chollet, a former Defense Department official who was on Obama’s national security council, said Trump compounded the “optic problem” by “the jovial nature” of pictures of Trump with Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Comey’s firing “is a question that will be a frame of reference on everything to do with his Russia policy,” Chollet said. “He can’t change that.”
Foreign minister meets with Trump and Tillerson, calls questions about election meddling ‘noise’