US, Russian foreign officials clash over election meddling
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo clashed with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a news conference Tuesday as the Kremlin’s top diplomat denied any evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and Pompeo declared that it happened and “it’s unacceptable.”
The exchange happened just before Lavrov’s scheduled meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House and after House Democrats unveiled two articles of impeachment against Trump over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals and a debunked conspiracy theory about the 2016 election.
Pompeo and Lavrov both stated their support for an improvement in U.S.-Russia relations despite broad disagreement between the two powers on an array of issues from Venezuela to Syria to Ukraine.
Pompeo said the bilateral relationship is “complicated” but that the two countries discussed arms control issues and made progress on “economic” cooperation that would be announced “before too terribly long.”
Pompeo said he conveyed to Lavrov that the United States will not tolerate Russian interference in U.S. elections. “I was clear — it’s unacceptable,” he said.
Lavrov said Russia has demanded the United States provide evidence of election interference, but when asked by a reporter why he doesn’t simply “read the Mueller report,” Lavrov dismissed the suggestion.
“We read it. There is no proof of any collusion,” he said, speaking through an interpreter.
While special counsel
Robert Mueller did not establish a conspiracy between Russia and members of the Trump campaign, his office did issue an indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers for the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
In response to Lavrov’s calls for more evidence, Pompeo said this was unnecessary.
“We think we’ve shared plenty of facts to show what happened in the 2016 election with our Russian counterparts. We don’t think there’s any mistake about what really transpired there,” he said.
Pompeo also said he raised the issue of Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine detained by Moscow on spying charges since 2018.
Lavrov said an investigation into Whelan finished in September and the matter was making its way through the courts. He suggested that concerns about Whelan’s health were not credible.
He also expressed an interest in renewing the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as New START, but said Moscow has not received a proposal from the U.S.
Pompeo expressed his desire to include China in the arms talks with Russia even though Beijing has said that it will not participate given that Moscow and Washington have significantly larger nuclear arsenals. Lavrov noted China’s concerns but said Russia is open to a trilateral arrangement.
The White House said after the Trump-Lavrov meeting that Trump also warned against any Russian attempts to interfere in U.S. elections and urged Russia to resolve the conflict with Ukraine.
Lavrov’s last visit to Washington in 2017 ended in controversy after the Russian Embassy in Washington released images of him and U.S. officials shaking hands in the Oval Office. The Russian delegation was allowed to bring a photographer in the room from the state news agency Tass, while U.S. photojournalists were barred entry to the meeting.
The meeting came a day after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who was leading the investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russian officials. Trump reportedly told Lavrov that Comey was “crazy” and a “real nut job.”
U.S. officials later revealed that Trump disclosed highly classified information to Lavrov in the meeting that related to a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.