Russian President Vladimir Putin joked Thursday that American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had “fallen in with the wrong company” since being awarded Russia’s “Order of Friendship” in 2013.
Tillerson, who served as chief executive of ExxonMobil for ten years before accepting the job leading Trump’s State Department, had extensive business experience in Russia over the past three decades.
He was given the award, according to the Kremlin, for his “big contribution to developing cooperation in the energy sector.” Specifically, he received it after Exxon expanded a deal with the majority Russian-government-owned energy company Rosneft.
On Thursday, according to a translation from Reuters, Putin joked to a U.S. citizen at an economic forum that he regretted the award.
“We awarded your compatriot Mr. Tillerson the Order of Friendship, but he seems to have fallen in with the wrong company and to be steering in the other direction,” he said, adding: “I hope that the wind of cooperation, friendship and reciprocity will eventually put him on the right path.”
