President Trump met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the Oval Office at the request of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“He chose to receive him because Putin asked him to,” a White House spokesman told Politico. “Putin did specifically ask on the call when they last talked.”
Former President Obama for the last several years had refused to meet with the top Russian diplomat at the White House, Politico reported. His last meeting at the White House was in 2013.
“The Russians were begging us for years to do that,” a former White House official said. “They were constantly pushing for it and we were constantly saying ‘no.'”
The meeting, which was reportedly scheduled in advance, came a day after Trump’s controversial firing of FBI Director James Comey amid an investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
While at the State Department before his White House visit, Lavrov joked about Comey’s firing.
“You’re kidding,” he responded when asked about the termination.
