Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a security conference in Munich on Friday that the State Department did not publicly disclose before nor after the fact.
Politico reported that the two diplomats met in Lavrov’s meeting room at the hotel in which the conference took place.
Maria Zakharova, Lavrov’s spokesperson, posted about the meeting on Facebook and included a photo of Pompeo in the hotel hallway with Lavrov and others.
Zakharova wrote in the post that Pompeo had wished the people in the hallway “good luck,” according to Politico’s translation.
“There are few to whom Americans now wish something good,” she reportedly wrote.
The State Department did not list the meeting in its official schedule of Pompeo’s travels from February 13-22 and did not provide a readout for it.
A department spokesperson described the meeting as a mere “pull-aside” in an emailed statement to TPM on Sunday.
“We can confirm that Secretary Pompeo and Foreign Minister Lavrov met briefly on the margins of the Munich Security Conference on February 14,” the spokesperson said. “Consistent with State Department practice regarding pull-asides, there will be no readout.”
This story has been updated to include a comment from the State Department.
Nice to see the Russian Government is keeping us Americans in the loop.
Almost as if they’re deliberately embarrassing Trump.
“Pull aside”… a euphemism for “meet with your handler”?
The new policy in the Banana Republic of Trump…barring all officials from listening to his phone calls…
And, more covert meetings with his henchmen (Pompeo, Barr, Guiliani et al) with their International Criminal Enterpise!
Meanwhile, The Criminal IMPetus made “You are not king” trending in Twitter…
In Bloomberg’s tweet…Trump is nothing but a CBC = “Carnival Barking Clown”
Undisclosed to the American public but known by Putin and maybe Moscow Mitch?