President Donald Trump has spoken out about his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey.
Tillerson and Lavrov made a brief appearance Wednesday morning for a photo-op, and as Tillerson began to lead his guest back behind closed doors, Lavrov responded to a question about Comey's firing.
Lavrov chalked up the controversy to "noise" and to "false news" - invoking Trump's frequent references to the Russian Federation allegations as "fake news". "President Trump in these pictures, is shaking hands with Russians, and the Kremlin is gleefully tweeting these pictures around the world", Durbin said on the Senate floor. Current and former U.S. intelligence officials have accused Kislyak of being a top spy and recruiter of spies, a notion that Russian officials have dismissed. Other administration officials have also faced scrutiny for their contacts with the longtime Russian envoy. Russian officials had described the individual as Lavrov's official photographer without disclosing that he also worked for TASS.
Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates said Monday that she alerted the White House earlier this year that then-Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn could be "essentially blackmailed by the Russians".
Kislyak has figured prominently in a series of damaging stories for the administration.
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was sacked for lying about his contacts with Kislyak late past year.
The administration official said that "it is standard practice for ambassadors to accompany their principals, and it is ridiculous to suggest there was anything improper". He added that White House rooms "are swept routinely" for listening devices.
Russian Federation has in the past gone to significant lengths to hide bugs in key USA facilities.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday welcomed Vladimir Putin's top diplomat to the White House for Trump's highest level face-to-face contact with a Russian government official since he took office in January.
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Putin said: "Your question seems very amusing to me".
Trump said he was meeting with Kissinger to talk "about Russian Federation and various other matters".
US intelligence agencies said they concluded with "high confidence" that Russian Federation tried to affect the outcome of the 2016 election. Lavrov at turns characterized such allegations as "noise" and a "humiliation" for the American people. "We have been discussing specific issues, but never touched upon this bacchanalia". The FBI has been conducting an investigation into possible ties between Russian Federation and the Trump campaign.
An agitated Lavrov said, "Was he fired?".
"Was he fired? You're kidding", Lavrov said sarcastically, feigning surprise as he started his day of meetings in Washington.
In Moscow, the reaction to Comey's dismissal also has been acerbic.
Her testimony pushed the story of the Trump campaign's alleged ties to Russian Federation back into the headlines. In the report, Konstantin Kosyachev, a senior Russian legislator, said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation director was let go "because he's not supposed to act like he's the president".
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.
"We're talking about Syria and I think that we're going to do very well with respect to Syria and things happening that are really, really positive", Trump said.
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