Tillerson meets with Putin during trip to Moscow

Fox News reported Wednesday that Tillerson had a face-to-face meeting with Vladamir Putin, Russia's president, only a day after the USA accused Russia of covering up evidence that al-Assad's government used sarin gas. I think it's very bad for mankind.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says he had a "productive" meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Wednesday, despite palpable tension between the USA and Russia.

I've never seen anything like it and frankly, Putin is backing a person that's truly an evil person.

Tillerson, offering a bit more of a cordial outlook after Tuesday's ultimatum, said he was hoping for a "very open, candid, and frank exchange" with Lavrov.

Not long before Trump spoke, Russian Federation vetoed a Western-backed United Nations resolution that would have condemned the chemical weapons attack and demanded a speedy investigation.

In the first visit to Russian Federation by a Trump Cabinet official, Tillerson said he was aiming to clear up "sharp differences" with Russian Federation.

The less-than-positive assessments of relations by both Trump and Tillerson reflected the former Cold War foes' inability to forge greater co-operation, as Trump until recently has advocated.

Syria and Russian Federation have both denied that Assad's forces carried out the toxic gas attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun last week.

Putin's assessment comes a day after the Trump administration accused Russian Federation of orchestrating a "disinformation campaign" to cover up the chemical attack in Syria's Idlib province. The diplomats know each other well from Mr Tillerson's days as Exxon Mobil chief executive.

It is not the first time Mr Putin and Mr Tillerson have had talks.

The Putin-Tillerson meeting was believed to be the first between the Russian President and a top member of Mr Trump's administration since the U.S. businessman took office in January.

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.

"But when you drop gas, or bombs, or barrel bombs - they have these massive barrels with dynamite, and they drop them right in the middle of a group of people - and in all fairness you see the same kids, no arms, no legs, no face".

Further evidence of division was shown when Russia's foreign ministry said Moscow would later veto a draft resolution by the US, UK and France requiring the Syrian government to co-operate with an investigation into the chemical attack.

Moments earlier, Mr Lavrov had greeted Mr Tillerson with unusually icy remarks, denouncing the missile strike on Syria as illegal and accusing Washington of behaving unpredictably.

Mr Johnson backed United States calls to find a political solution and said the G7 leaders were ready to work with Russian Federation to end the violence in Syria. -Russian ties and identify problems. He said the two sides would also discuss disagreements on Syria and how to end the country's six-year civil war.

Lavrov also extensively criticized USA foreign policy in the past, from Iraq to Yugoslavia.

However, the BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says President Assad is Russia's key military ally in the Middle East and Mr Tillerson may need to rethink his belief that he can weaken Moscow's support for him.