Pompeo had flown to Sochi today after a surprise detour to Brussels, where he had tried to persuade European leaders to stand with Washington in an escalating confrontation with Iran. It was his second Iran-related change of plans in a week. After the meeting, he said he and Lavrov
It was a friendly opening that seemed to hint at a thaw after months of tensions. Speaking at a press conference after the talks, Lavrov also suggested that relations were warming, and expressed relief that the Mueller report on Russian election meddling had concluded.
«We’ve agreed to restore our channels of communications; they were frozen, not in the least because of the wave of baseless accusations against us regarding the attempts to influence the outcome of American elections and the presence of some collusion of highest members of the US administration,» he said.
But while Pompeo said he had raised the issue of Russian «interference in our domestic affairs» in his meeting with Lavrov, his Russian counterpart rather icily dismissed the issue of Russian interference in the 2016 election, calling it «absolutely fake.»
On many other matters of substance, the US and Russia remained at odds. Pompeo said the Trump administration has spoken with Russia and has «made clear» that Washington wants Russia to cease support for the regime of embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. In turn, Lavrov gave a brief lecture to the assembled press in Sochi about America’s record on attempted regime change around the world.
The two top diplomats also did not agree on the Ukraine crisis: Pompeo said he called on Russia to release Ukrainian sailors that were detained by Russia in November 2018 and to reach out to Ukraine’s new president to break the «stalemate» over Russia’s conflict with Ukraine.
