In an instant last week, when more than 50 Tomahawk missiles came crashing down around a Syrian air base, that all changed, and since then, the Kremlin has been fighting a rearguard action aimed at dulling the Trump administration's ultimatum that Russian Federation must change sides or else.
Earlier on Wednesday, Peskov said that Putin could receive the Russian foreign minister and the U.S. secretary of they considered it reasonable to brief the president on the outcome of their talks.
Lavrov said Moscow was hoping to understand Washington's "real intentions" and warned that Moscow considered it "fundamentally important" to prevent more "unlawful" USA strikes against its ally Syria. It was stark evidence that the president is moving ever further from his campaign promises to establish better ties with Moscow.
Lavrov told Tillerson Moscow was hoping to understand Washington's "real intentions" and warned that the Kremlin considered it "fundamentally important" to prevent more "unlawful" USA strikes against its ally Syria.
Russia's deputy United Nations ambassador says the US "provocation" by attacking a Syrian air base will only encourage those who want a military solution to the six-year Syrian conflict. But he clearly wasn't counting on it.
Diplomats said that Russian Federation has put forward a rival draft resolution that expresses concern at last week's gas attack and condemns the USA strike on Syria.
Tillerson met Putin in the Kremlin after talking to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, for about three hours.
Before the sit-down, Putin had ensured that it would be awkward.
Tillerson noted the low level of trust between the two countries.
First came last week's U.S. strike in response to Bashar al-Assad's deadly sarin-gas attack on innocent civilians.
What Americans - especially those who believe team Trump is somehow in cahoots with the Russians - now know for sure is that Trump is openly saying the relationship, which he leads, is awful.
The President's oft-expressed hopes of repairing relations with Moscow, for which he took huge heat during and after his presidential campaign, are unravelling.
Trump says US, Russia 'not getting along'
More than 80 people were killed in what the USA has described as a nerve gas attack that Assad's forces undoubtedly carried out. President Trump had spent much of his first 83 days in office attempting to roll back his predecessor's initiatives.
"Putin is the leader of Russian Federation".
Russian Federation has blocked a Western-led effort at the UN Security Council to both condemn the chemical attack in Syria, and push Moscow's ally President Bashar al-Assad to cooperate with global inquiries into the incident.
Ms Haley told the 15-member Security Council that Russia, "Once again, has chosen to side with Assad, even as the rest of the world, including the Arab world, overwhelmingly comes together to condemn this murderous regime".
Not long before Trump spoke, Russian Federation vetoed a Western-backed United Nations resolution that would have condemned the chemical weapons attack and demanded a speedy investigation. But he still held out some hope, also saying it would be "wonderful" if the USA and Russian Federation could get along.
Lavrov seemed to delight in recalling US attempts to oust dictators in Sudan and Libya.
Mr Tillerson also called for Assad to eventually relinquish power.
Beyond Syria, Russia's alleged meddling in the USA presidential election also hovered over what was the first face-to-face encounter between Putin and any Trump administration Cabinet member. -Russian dispute concerned culpability for the chemical weapons, broader disagreements over everything from Ukraine to Russia's support for once-fringe candidates in European elections were among other sore points.
"We are going to see what happens", he said. "I like to think they didn't know".
Tillerson is considering the request, he said, "and we expect that Washington will have a constructive reaction".
The only other possibility Putin gave was the one given by the Assad regime-that a Syrian air strike hit a chemical weapons depot of the anti-Assad rebels.
Mr Tillerson and Mr Lavrov announced a number of measures to cool the confrontation.
Throughout the press conference, the Russian official made frequent references to intelligence failures that led to the US invasion of Iraq, as well as other instances of regime change supported by America.
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