Donald Trump has declared that US relations with Russia "may be at an all-time low" laying bare deep and dangerous divisions on Syria and other issues, while his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered a similarly grim assessment after meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
"Right now we're not getting along with Russia at all," Trump flatly declared at a White House press conference on Wednesday, giving stark proof the president is moving ever further from his 2016 campaign promise to establish better ties with Moscow.
Only weeks ago it seemed Trump was poised for a potentially historic rapprochement with Russia. But any such expectations have been dashed amid the war in Syria and ongoing US investigations into Russia's alleged interference in America's US presidential election.
"It'd be a fantastic thing if we got along with Putin and if we got along with Russia," Trump said.
"That could happen, and it may not happen.
"It may be just the opposite."
Earlier on Wednesday Tillerson had a similar tone after an almost two-hour meeting with Putin, saying the two countries had reached a "low point" in relations.
Last week Trump ordered airstrikes on a Syrian air base in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack which killed 80 people and was described by the US as a nerve gas attack carried out by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
Not long before Trump spoke, Russia vetoed a Western-backed UN resolution that would have condemned the chemical weapons attack and demanded a speedy investigation.
The dim view of US-Russian ties from both Trump and Tillerson reflected the former Cold War foes' inability to forge better relations, as Trump until recently has advocated.
Allegations of collusion between Russian officials and Trump campaign associates also have weakened Trump's ability to make concessions to Russia in any agreement. Russia wants the US to eliminate sanctions on Moscow related to its 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Until the chemical attack, the Trump administration had sought to step back from the US position that Assad should leave power. But Tillerson repeated the administration's new belief that "the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end."
Russia's alleged meddling in the US presidential election also hovered over what was the first face-to-face encounter between Putin and any Trump administration Cabinet member.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov blasted US claims that it has "irrefutable evidence" of election interference.
"We have not seen a single fact, or even a hint of facts," he said. "I do not know who saw them. No one showed us anything, no one said anything, although we repeatedly asked to produce the details on which these unfounded accusations lie."
He also rejected American claims of certain evidence that Assad ordered the chemical attack.
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