'We're Not Getting Along at All': US-Russian Relations Go into Deep Freeze
04-13-2017
Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hasn't produced any positive shift yet in Russia-U.S. relations, the Kremlin said Thursday.
"Right now we're not getting along with Russia at all," said a blunt President Donald Trump as tensions between the two nuclear powers continue to worsen.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. U.S.-Russia relations were supposed to improve under the Trump administration.
However, the Syrian nerve gas attack blamed on Russia's ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad, and the retaliatory U.S. missile attack against Syria has sent U.S.-Russia ties to rock bottom.
"The current state of U.S. Russian Relations is at a low point," Tillerson, who is in Moscow for meetings, said at a joint news conference Wednesday.
Putin also said on Russian TV that the level of trust has "deteriorated."
A Chilly Reception in Moscow
The news comes after Tillerson faced an unusually chilly reception in Moscow.
The U.S. missile strike on Syria that triggered the diplomatic crisis hit a Syrian airbase where there had been Russian military personnel, so did Moscow know about the chemical weapons?
Trump said, "I would like to think that they didn't know, but certainly they could have. They were there. So we'll find out."
After a tense, two-hour, closed door meeting with Putin, Tillerson then angered Russia by bluntly calling for regime change in Damascus: "Our view is that the reign of
the Assad family is coming to an end," he said.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, referring to Iraq, said, "Experiments like that, which are built on an obsession with overthrowing dictators, totalitarian or authoritarian leaders, we have already seen. We know the ending of it way too well."
The two sides also agreed to disagree about Ukraine, where Moscow backs rebel forces.
Whispers of 'World War 3'
With relations between the two nuclear powers worsening, Google Trends reports internet searches for the term "World War 3" have hit an all time high.
"The world's two foremost nuclear powers cannot have this kind of relationship," Tillerson said.
And the U.S. warned Russia that it is only isolating itself with its continued support of Assad.
