Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov Meets in DC With Tillerson

As scrutiny intensifies around investigations into the Trump campaign's possible ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign, President Donald Trump emphasized his hope for better relations between the USA and the Kremlin in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday.

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was sacked in February after it was revealed he misled Vice President Pence about his discussions with Kislyak. Flynn is now one of the key figures in the investigation. Current and former United States intelligence officials have accused Kislyak of being a top spy and recruiter of spies, a notion that Russian officials have dismissed.

"I had a bilateral meeting with Rex Tillerson, then the two of us were received by President Trump". On Wednesday, Trump will meet with the diplomat in his highest level of face-to-face contact with Russian Federation during his administration.

At the meeting with Tillerson, Lavrov sarcastically jokes that he didn't know Comey had been fired.

A visibly irritated Lavrov said, "Was he fired? You're kidding! You're kidding".

Lavrov, who has been Russia's top diplomat for more than a decade, was already due to be in town for the meeting with Tillerson before the Trump meeting was announced.

The meeting was Trump's highest level face-to-face contact with a Russian official since taking office and in itself represented modest progress. The State Department official said it was "too early to tell" whether a Russian-backed plan for safe zones inside Syria was viable.

Lavrov's visit risked being overshadowed by the firing of Comey.

Russian government social media accounts tweeted out images of Trump with Lavrov, as well as with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak whose attendance, his government said, is considered protocol.

The White House says Trump emphasized his desire for better relations with Russian Federation.

US intelligence agencies have asserted that Moscow meddled in the election to help Trump's chances of victory.

It is the first meeting between President Trump and the top Russian diplomat.

The US missile strike angered Moscow and led Lavrov to declare that "it's sad how damaging this is to the already bad relations between US and Russian Federation".

Lavrov said that much of the meeting was spent on the Syria crisis, and that he was hopeful that Russian Federation and America can work to "turn the tide and improve the situation". Before that, he was Russia's ambassador to the United Nations in NY from 1994 to 2004.

The Russian diplomat hadn't visited Washington at all since 2013, a year before Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and two years before it intervened militarily in Syria to help Assad remain in power. It comes ahead of an Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting in Fairbanks, Alaska.

"On Syria, the secretary intends to discuss efforts to de-escalate violence, provide humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people and set the stage for a political settlement of the conflict", the State Department said in a statement. The Kremlin said Putin called the US strike an "aggression against a sovereign state in violation of worldwide law".

"You're kidding. You're kidding" as he posed on Wednesday for photographs with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Comey's dismissal has sparked new calls for an independent probe into Russia's attempts to influence last year's US presidential election - despite the Trump administration's assertion that Comey was removed over his handling of the investigation into Clinton's private email server.

"If we manage to find... a common position with the United States on this issue, it will be the most important result", Ryabkov said, quoted by the Interfax news agency. Unfortunately, instead of "reset" the Russian word on the button read "overcharged".

He praised Trump for trying to build a "business relationship" with Russian Federation, and dismissed claims that Russian Federation was controlling the U.S.as "ridiculous".