Putin and Tillerson agree that U.S.–Russia relationship isn't going so well

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian President Vladimir Putin appear to agree on at least one thing — the relationship between the U.S. and Russia is at a low point even for the two historic adversaries.

Most recently, the relationship between the two nations has been complicated by their positions on Syria, tension that was evident at a Wednesday news conference with Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The two men outlined varying visions for the future of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, as well as an array of other international issues, but both pledged to work on improving relations between their respective nations.


“We frankly discussed the current state of the U.S.-Russia relations. I expressed the view that the current state is at a low point,” Tillerson said in introductory remarks before taking questions from reporters in Moscow. “There is a low level of trust between our two countries. The world's two foremost nuclear powers cannot have this kind of relationship.”

And while Tillerson appeared Wednesday before reporters with Lavrov, he met beforehand for roughly two hours with Putin himself. Earlier in the day, the Russian president expressed a similar sentiment to Tillerson, telling a state TV station that “the level of trust at the working level, especially at the military level, has not become better but most likely has degraded.”

Tillerson’s trip to Russia, his first as secretary of state, comes just days after a U.S. missile strike against the regime of Assad, a Russian ally. The missile strike, which targeted a Syrian military air base, followed a chemical weapon attack that the U.S. and other Western nations have blamed on Assad, an assessment that the Kremlin disputes.

At the bilateral news conference, Tillerson left open the possibility that the U.S. might move to charge Assad with war crimes, although he said sufficient evidence to formally level such an accusation has not yet been amassed. The secretary did reiterate the position that he and others have taken in the days since last week’s chemical weapons attack, that “the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end.”

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Russia called for an impartial investigation into the chemical weapon attack and said moving toward regime change in Syria would only destabilize the region. As evidence, Lavrov critically recalled U.S. interventions in Iraq, Libya and Yugoslavia that he said resulted in increased instability.

Both Lavrov and Tillerson made mention of plans to establish a working group with representatives from the State Department and Russia’s foreign ministry with the goal of improving relations between the two nations. Perhaps eager to take a shot at the previous U.S. administration, with whom Putin’s government clashed badly, Lavrov said the new group would address “irritants which have dogged our relations over the last couple of years, particularly under the administration of President Obama.”

While the two diplomats pledged an effort to improve relations, readouts from their meetings during the day painted a tense picture of the bilateral exchange. According to the AP, Lavrov accused the U.S. of launching an unlawful attack against Assad. The AP also reported that Lavrov said Russia was looking to understand U.S. President Donald Trump’s “real intentions.”

