Donald Trump entered the presidency committed to improving U.S. ties with Russia, but less than three months into his term, the President says the relationship is at “an all-time low.”
Trump’s comments come in the wake of last week's U.S. missile strike on Syria’s Shayrat Air Base in response to what the Trump Administration determined was the Assad government’s complicity in a chemical weapons attack against its civilians. The Administration has also accused Russia – who supports President Bashar al-Assad – of covering up Syria’s role in the attack and accused Moscow of pushing a false narrative to sow doubt over the Syrian government’s culpability. Russia, meanwhile, is laying blame on Syrian rebels.
At a White House news conference on Wednesday, following a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Trump said, “right now, we’re not getting along with Russia at all, we may be at an all-time low.”
That came as Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, was in Moscow meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Tillerson told reporters after his meetings, “There is a low level of trust between our two countries,” adding, “The world's two foremost nuclear powers cannot have this kind of relationship.”
Putin, meanwhile, told Russia’s state television channel Mir that “the level of trust at the working level, especially at the military level, has not become better but most likely has degraded.”
Mike Sulick, a former director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service who worked on intelligence collection and foreign liaison relationships in Russia over the course of his CIA career, said Putin had anticipated a new and better relationship to emerge under Trump, but “only if the new administration corrected the mistakes of the last one, i.e. Putin expected concessions from us.”
“I assumed the budding relationship would eventually clash with the issues dividing the U.S. and Russia,” Sulick told The Cipher Brief.
Putin had hoped the favorable comments made by candidate Trump and at the president’s first press conference in February would lead to the easing of sanctions imposed following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its support for rebels in eastern Ukraine.
The other point of contention between the two countries is Russia’s interference in the U.S. presidential election. Tillerson said at his news conference that Russia’s involvement is “fairly well established in the United States.” The U.S. Intelligence Community has assessed that Putin ordered a cyber and influence campaign aimed at interfering in the 2016 election and boosting Trump’s chances.
Tillerson told reporters it is a “serious issue” and “it's one that we know is serious enough to attract additional sanctions.”
“I’m sure that Russia is mindful of it as well,” he added.
Lavrov, however, responded that “not a single fact has been confirmed … nobody has shown us anything.”
At the United Nations on Wednesday, Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution, drafted by the U.S., the UK and France, condemning the use of chemical weapons in Syria that killed dozens of civilians and calling on Russia and Syria to cooperate in an international investigation.
Lavrov said Russia wants a “frank investigation,” but he noted it would be “counterproductive” to adopt a UN resolution that is “not dedicated to investigating the incident, but more legitimizing the accusations against Damascus.”
U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley reacted to Moscow’s veto, saying, “Russia said no to accountability, Russia said no to cooperating with the UN investigation, Russia said no to helping keep peace in Syria, Russia chose to side with Assad, even as the rest of the world, even the Arab world, comes together to condemn the murderous regime.”
In an interview on Fox Business Network on Wednesday, Trump said the U.S. wouldn’t go into Syria, “but if I see them using gas...we have to do something.”
Despite his stated desire for a stronger relationship with Russia, the U.S. President has come face-to-face with Putin’s support of Assad.
“Frankly, Putin is backing a person that's truly an evil person,” he said, referring to Assad as “an animal.”
“I think it's very bad for Russia. I think it's very bad for mankind,” Trump added.
Pam Benson is managing editor The Cipher Brief, and Kaitlin Lavinder (@KaitLavinder) is a reporter.
