MOSCOW — Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson opened his first meetings in Moscow on Wednesday at a moment when relations between the United States and Russia are so tense that it was unclear whether President Vladimir V. Putin would even see the man he once gave a medal of friendship.
In the 24 hours before Mr. Tillerson landed, the White House accused Mr. Putin’s government of covering up evidence that the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad was responsible for sarin gas attacks on its own people, launched from a base where Russian troops are operating.
Mr. Putin shot back that the charge was fabricated and accused the administration of President Trump, who American intelligence agencies believe
benefited from Russian cyberattacks intended to embarrass his
Democratic rival during the election campaign, of fabricating the
evidence to create a fake confrontation.
“This
reminds me very much of the events of 2003, when U.S. representatives
in the Security Council showed alleged chemical weapons discovered in
Iraq,” Mr. Putin said, referring to an intelligence failure that Mr.
Trump has also cited in recent months. “The exact same thing is
happening now,” he charged.
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He
quoted two Russian writers, Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov, authors of the
1928 satire “The 12 Chairs,” and said, “ ‘It’s boring, ladies.’ We have
seen this all before.”
But
the diplomatic theater playing out in Moscow on a rainy Wednesday
morning was far from boring: Mr. Putin, operating on home turf, was
looking for any way to shape the narrative of Mr. Tillerson’s first trip
here as secretary of state.
The
outcome could well decide whether Mr. Trump’s oft-stated desire to
remake American relations with Moscow will now disintegrate, just as
similar efforts by Barack Obama did early in his presidency.
Russia
said earlier this week that Mr. Putin would not meet with Mr.
Tillerson, but on Wednesday the Russian leader’s spokesman, Dmitri S.
Peskov, held out the possibility of a meeting later in the day. Russian
leaders have greeted virtually all new secretaries of state since the
end of World War II, but Mr. Peskov said any meeting would depend on how
Mr. Tillerson’s other talks went.
The drama appeared to be an effort by Mr. Putin to show that he was in control.
Critics of the Trump administration insist that the series of events around the attack in Syria had been meant to distract from the investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Mr.
Tillerson, who was recognized with an Order of Friendship medal by the
Russian government while he was the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, has
insisted on a tough line on Russia, ruling out any early end to
sanctions unless the country returns Crimea to Ukraine and ceases
meddling elsewhere.
On Syria, Mr. Tillerson delivered what sounded much like an ultimatum to the Russians on Tuesday while talking to reporters at a Group of 7 meeting in Italy.
“I
think it is clear to all of us that the reign of the Assad family is
coming to an end,” Mr. Tillerson said, echoing a theme first heard from
Mr. Obama in 2011, when the Arab Spring led many to believe the Syrian
leader was about to be overthrown.
Mr.
Tillerson essentially demanded that Russia make a choice, severing ties
with Mr. Assad and working with the United States on a variety of
initiatives in the Middle East.
But
Mr. Putin and his acolytes in the Russian government see the situation
very differently. They regard their military intervention in Syria,
which the Obama administration did not see coming, as a tactical
success.
They
shored up Mr. Assad and made him dependent on Russia’s presence. That,
in turn, assured Russia’s continued access to its naval station in
Syria, a move that was critical to the country’s efforts to project
power in the Middle East.
As Mr. Tillerson entered the foreign ministry here to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, an experienced and wily veteran
of many of Russia’s post-Cold War encounters with Washington, the
Russian government released another salvo against American intentions
here.
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