Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to Moscow was shaping up to be an ugly one, tasked with dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin after last week’s US attack on Syria. US-Russia tensions appear to be getting worse so much faster, however, that it has killed the talks entirely.
Kremlin officials now say that Putin has no intention of meeting with Tillerson at all during his visit, and that the only Russian official Tillerson is going to be meeting with is Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Kremlin officials have downplayed the seriousness of this move, insisting a Putin-Tillerson meeting was never officially scheduled in the first place. That’s technically true, but as Tillerson had met Putin in the past, it seemed a foregone conclusion that one would take place.
Russia was clearly unhappy with the US attack on Syria, and tensions are continuing to rise, with Russia warning the US not to carry out more such attacks, while the US ratchets up allegations of Russian involvement in a putative Syrian gas attack.
The Tillerson-Lavrov meeting is likely to end with both sides issuing statements criticizing the other at any rate, despite being much lower profile than a meeting with the Russian president, but the lack of such meeting is the real news here, underscoring just how dire bilateral relations have become.
Great move by Putin.
After chemical attack that’s why we Americans did it,it’s one off attack and and we won’t do it again type of meeting it was going to be.
Keep pocking Russian gear is not very good idea specially when Putin is around.
gear or bear…???
When Russian bear screwing you we use word gear ( depends how fast is your requirements)
Putin is the Russian Cromwell.
I hope Lavrov mops the floor with Tillerson by laying out all the crap the U.S. had done in the Middle East and Ukraine. Tillerson is a neophyte who is clueless as to what the U.S. has done around the world.
As the head of a major oil company he knows exactly how the US military operates.
OOOOOOOO Sure… Do you think that TrainWreck Tillerson won’t have CIA/NWO gnomes shouting threats & orders into the internal earplug that his lack of deepth on the crimes of empire require.. Who knows what the Russians have on this latest attack… and how it will play out at the meeting. One thing is sure, the Russians are sick to death of being played.. Don’t forget that when the trouble in Libya began, Russia let the U.S./NATO set up a no fly zone, supposedly to protect “demonstraters” from being bombed by Ghadaffi. How did the U.S/NATO respond…?? They flew 1000s of sorties and wiped out Gadaffi’s entire army and murdered him… This is a totally fresh memory (betrayal) for the Russians. Thanks to this reckless snuff of civil life in Libya by Obama, Nuland, and Hillary…. The Russians will be in NO MOOD to trust the NWO-US/NATO’S soothing words that US/NATO won”t use any concessions the Russians make against them and their interests in Syria.
Hot news item this morning.. “Slave markets are cropping up in in Lybia.” Refugees are being captured and sold as slaves. Especially if their family refuses to pay (or can’t) ransome.. Another fine Hillary mess… Slave camps!!!!!!!! There’s an unintended result one can see.. Hillary”s liberation of women aside, I wonder how woman’s rights are werk in out in these slave camps.
Here’s what Lavrov and Putin should tell Sexy Rexy:
“You want Assad gone. Here are our terms.”
1. We will get Assad to abdicate and give him and his family sanctuary in Russia for the rest of their lives.
2. Russia will keep its base, unmolested, in Syria forever.
3. Assad’s supporters in Syria will be allowed to escape ISIS and other extremist Muslims and live in either the U.S. or Russia. Their choice. The U.S. will finance their travels to whatever country they choose to live in.
4. The U.S. will keep Syria’s existing boundaries with no partitioning of the country or doling out sections to different
countries or groups. U.S. boots on the ground will be required to protect the boundaries and maintain the peace.
5. The U.S. will finance the rebuilding of Syria after all the carnage from the wars.
6. The U.S. will occupy Syria until peace breaks out and everyone is happy.
Take it or leave it Rexy and Donaldo!
I wish I could believe these belligerent statements and actions are just a charade to get the media off Trump’s back with their phony accusations of his taking orders from Putin. I don’t see how Trump could have continued to function as president with all these investigations and accusations. At least the attack was very limited, wrong though it was. The CIA did not have even a rep at the photo op prior to the attack.
Putin: Tillerson is useless. Why waste time, amirite?
Putin to Lavrov: You talk with buffoon. I’ll go for a shvitz.
He would be below Putin’s dignity. And besides, it’s time the Russians sent a message telling Trump that the gameplaying party is over.
Russia has made itself independent of the US and that makes them immune to the bullshit sanctions by the US. It’s undoubtedly cold war until Trump gets the nerve to pull the nuclear trigger on Russia. Best of luck if you Americans don’t find a way to get rid of your psychopath president!
Putin miscalculated when he allowed his countries intelligence apparatus to influence and interfere in our elections.Isn’t this the KGB spy master that’s supposedly trying to make Russia a superpower again.Honestly what has he done he’s had 2 terms as a president 2 terms as a prime minister and now he’s Russia’s president Again he’s managed to seize Crimea from Ukraine create a frozen conflict on Ukraine’s border because they where fed up with there puppet pro Russian corrupt government and wanted to join the U.N.for all you people always talking about a nations sovernety he’s managed to get the world to sanction his country and make the Russian ruble worthless compared to the other worlds currency he’s managed to get 4 NATO battalions stationed on Russia’s doorsteps and is on the brink of combat in Syria with America not exactly a winning record.To all you pro Russian anti America traitors losers and bots understand Putin isn’t your messiah he’s your downfall.I can understand that Syria is the only place in the middle east that Russia has a presence but if the world decides to take out Assad there’s nothing he they can do unless they want to take on the world and I don’t care what you losers say they can’t and won’t win and Putin knows it…USA
“Putin miscalculated when he allowed his countries intelligence apparatus to influence and interfere in our elections.” Even here we have this evidence-free rubbish. Putin has enough real work to do, the USA is quite capable of completely messing up its own elections (and interfering in so many others)that this stupid story should be forgotten by anyone with brains.
If you find that the USA is so admirable, it certainly means you live on faith and/or fairy stories.
The world champion in interfering with other countries elections is the United States of America.
Goes back at least to the 1940’s after WW2.
Russia may have evidence , Al Qaeda ,Al Nusra or some other traveling Jihadists from Saudi Arabia or Turkey used the Sarin gas both times If that should be true Trump is going to have egg on his face for bombing that air base. This would also also cancel a lot damning Assad stories about Assad murdering his own people . They don’t call us the deep state for nothing
Makes sense. Why would the president of a country meet with some minister of another.
Remember Tillerson says you are either incompetent or complicit.
Putin should ignore Tillerson, who us dumber than John Kerry.
Gee, I guess restoring the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Prevention of Flight Safety Incidents in Syria is out.
Kind of tough to make war plans without it, but hey, the war machine needs the overtime cost plus.
On the plus side, Larov seems like a cool guy to hang out with.
Putin has another beef. Where are the promised reductions of US sanctions? They were put in place because of the Crimea. President Trump has not demanded that we return the Crimea to Ukraine. So what are you waiting for?
He’s lucky Lavrov will meet with him. After the incompetent stuff he’s been spewing, he could be met by a more junior official, and be told just that his message will be passed along.
It’s a good thing because Lavrov is near genius in his field of expertise. If negotiations could win the day over propaganda, this thing would have been settled long ago.
Has anyone noticed that Tillerson looks like he’s been testing the rebel’s sarin gas himself. What a f**king mess, that asshole.
Not sure I’d call it a ‘snub’. Usually the protocol is that an official of a certain rank has meetings with a host official of the same rank.
So, to me its perfectly normal to have a SOS meeting with an FM.