Putin Offers to Give Congress Transcript of Trump-Lavrov Meeting

Denies Trump Shared 'Secrets' During FM's Visit

As speculation continues to surround last week’s visit to the White House by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and what classified details President Trump might have let slip during their conversation, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to resolve the question by giving the US Congress a full transcript of what was said.

Current and former US officials claimed Trump had leaked the name of an ISIS city in which a foreign spy was present to Lavrov, and later officials revealed that the foreign spy was Israeli, predicting a major backlash with Israel’s intelligence community.

Putin denied Trump had shared anything dramatic with Lavrov, and expressed annoyance at the “political schizophrenia” in the US which is fueling these accusations. Even his offer to answer the question with a transcript itself became a controversy, because of a translation confusiioin.

Putin used the Russian word for “recording” in the initial comments, which led many to conclude he was offering an audio tape of the meeting. Later Russia’s state media confirmed that in fact there was a transcriptionist present at the meeting, and it was a written record of what was said that was being offered.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.