The White House is facing criticism for a possible security breach after it allowed a Russian news service photographer into the Oval Office to snap photos of President Donald Trump and a pair of top Russian officials.
In contrast, he credited Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whom he met earlier in the day, with taking a "businesslike" approach that is "free from ideology", focused on reaching agreements.
The White House and Vice President Mike Pence have said Trump fired Comey on the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and No. 2 Justice Department official Rod Rosenstein.
The Russians used the photos to troll the White House in its social media posts Wednesday.
It follows a presidential campaign dominated by running storylines related to cyber security, including the hacking and subsequent leaking of Democratic emails as part of what USA intelligence agencies determined was a wide-ranging operation meant to help Trump win the White House and denigrate his challenger, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
In addition to posting the Lavrov-Trump picture, the foreign ministry also posted video of Lavrov joking about Comey's firing. But security experts said that the risk was real, if remote.
The comment comes after Wednesday's meeting of US President Donald Trump in the White House with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador in Washington, D.C., Sergey Kislyak. The president said he met with Kissinger to talk about "about Russian Federation and various other matters".
Lavrov called it a US decision, echoing Putin, who said Russian Federation had nothing to do with Comey's dismissal. The president chose to fire Comey, then had Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Rosenstein come up with a rationale.
President Vladimir Putin has been asked to comment on the recent firing of the Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey.
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Journalists were later allowed into the Oval Office and found Trump sitting alone with Henry Kissinger, who was national security adviser and secretary of state in the Nixon and Ford administrations.
The President's remarks come despite widespread agreement among USA intelligence officials and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle that Russian Federation did indeed interfere in the United States election. "Not meet with the Russians?"
Lavrov chalked up the controversy to "noise" and to "false news", invoking Trump's frequent references to the Russian Federation allegations as "fake news".
"When I did this now I said, 'I probably, maybe will confuse people, maybe I'll expand that, you know, lengthen the time, ' because it should be over with, in my opinion, should have been over with a long time ago, 'cause all it is, is an excuse", he said.
"He made a recommendation, he's highly respected, very good guy, very smart guy, the Democrats like him, the Republicans like him, he made a recommendation but regardless of recommendation I was going to fire Comey", he said.
"I don't think the investigation will stop because James Comey isn't there", he said.
Trump and his team claim Comey was sacked for mishandling the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server but critics have argued the firing may be an attempt to hinder the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections with Russian Federation. "I said: 'If it's possible, would you let me know, am I under investigation?'" Trump told NBC. "It was set up a while ago and frankly I could have waited, but what difference does it make", Trump said.
"Don't be angry with me, please, but your question looks silly to me".
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman with Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, tweeted Thursday: "The format did not imply that the photos were being kept secret".
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