Trump warns Russia on US poll
US President Donald Trump warned Russia not to interfere in US elections in talks with Russia’s top diplomat on Tuesday, the White House said, after meetings where the two sides made no visible progress on nuclear arms control.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow wanted to publish US-Russian communications that he said cleared Russia of allegations it meddled in the 2016 US election but that Washington had blocked their release.
Speaking at a news conference with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Lavrov said the contacts were with former President Barack Obama’s administration but did not provide details on them. He repeated Russian denials of interference.
Lavrov also renewed Moscow’s offer to extend the US-Russia New START arms control treaty, while Trump and Pompeo stressed the need for a strategic dialogue.
The bilateral meetings took place as Democrats in the House of Representatives announced impeachment charges against Trump that accuse him of abusing power by pressuring Ukraine to probe a political rival and obstructing the subsequent Congress investigation.
“President Trump warned against any Russian attempts to interfere in United States elections,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement on Trump’s Oval
Office meeting with Lavrov.
Told about the White House statement, Lavrov, speaking through an interpreter at a solo evening news conference, said: “You know, we haven’t even actually discussed elections.”
Trump had also urged Russia to resolve the conflict with Ukraine, Deere said.
At the earlier joint news conference, Pompeo said the US believed other parties had to be brought in to a wider arms control discussion.
He said he would consider a Russian proposal to include nuclear powers Britain and France.
The 2011 agreement, which requires both sides to cut their deployed strategic nuclear warheads to no more than 1,550, is scheduled to expire in February 2021 but can be extended for up to five years by mutual consent.
“There is a real risk that there is a reduction in strategic stability just staying right where we are,” Pompeo said, arguing that delivery systems have evolved beyond the missiles, bombers and submarines covered by the New START treaty.
Lavrov’s last Oval Office meeting in May 2017 turned into a public relations disaster for Trump.
The president was accused by unnamed US officials of divulging highly classified information about a planned operation by the Islamic State militant group.
(Reuters)