A bilateral meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday resulted in a he said/he said dispute regarding the details of the foreign leaders first meeting, The Hill reports.
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov claimed Trump “accepted” Putin’s assertion that Russia did not meddle in the 2016 election, but his statement differs to the one that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gave about the meeting.
Tillerson said Trump opened the conversation with Putin by confronting him over Russian cyberattacks during the campaign, and the top U.S. diplomat claimed Trump continued to press Putin on the matter despite the Russian president’s repeated denials.
But speaking after the meeting, Lavrov said that Trump accepted Putin’s claim that Russia did not interfere in the election.
“U.S. President Trump said that he heard firm assertions from Russian President Putin that it is not true and that Russian authorities have not meddled in the elections. Trump said that he accepts these assertions. That’s it,” Lavrov said.
On the other hand, White House officials are pointing to Tillerson’s briefing with reporters, in which he detailed how the U.S. and Russia appear to be at an impasse on the issue because Putin will not acknowledge wrongdoing.
“The two leaders agreed that this is a substantial hindrance on the ability of us to move Russian-U.S. relationships forward and agreed to exchange further work regarding commitments of noninterference in the affairs of the United States and our democratic process as well as those of other countries. So more work to be done in that regard,” Tillerson said.
Tillerson said the countries agreed to further bilateral talks on how to ensure the integrity of U.S. elections against Russian cyberattacks.
“We are not dismissing the issue in any way. That is why we’ve agreed to continue engagement and discussion around how do we secure a commitment that the Russian government has no intention of and will not interfere in our affairs in the future, nor in the affairs of others, and how do we create a framework in which we have some capability to judge what is happening in the cyber world and who to hold accountable,” The Secretary of State noted.
“The president rightly focused on how do we move forward from what may be simply an intractable disagreement at this point,” he added.
Still, Trump’s critics are pointing to his remarks at a news conference Thursday as evidence he refuses to accept the conclusions of top intelligence agencies that Russia sought to sow discord in the election by targeting his challenger, Hillary Clinton, through an email hacking campaign.
Many believe Trump has been hesitant to embrace those findings because it would raise questions about the legitimacy of his victory. On Thursday, Trump said he believed Russia was involved in the cybercampaign, but that “other people and or countries” might have also played a part.
“Nobody really knows for sure,” Trump said at the time.
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