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Lavrov bewildered over media hype about photos of his meeting with Trump

The photos of the US president’s meeting with the Russian foreign minister presented by TASS photographer Aleksandr Shcherbak triggered an unexpectedly harsh response from some US mass media

© Aleksandr Shherbak/TASS

BEIJING, May 14. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Sunday he didn’t know why the media hype had aroused over the photos made during his meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington on May 10.

"I don’t know," the foreign minister said in reply to a question about why a scandal had aroused in the US media.

"The US White House explained that there was no scandal and it was posted on their website that that everything had been agreed like in the case with other ministers," Lavrov said.

The photos of the US president’s meeting with the Russian foreign minister presented by TASS photographer Aleksandr Shcherbak triggered an unexpectedly harsh response from some US mass media. First, some periodicals complained that only Russia’s photographer was allowed to take pictures at the protocol part of the meeting.

When it turned out that a White House photographer was present there, too, some mass media said the Trump administration was angry these photographs were published openly. Some US media even speculated the Russian journalist was hypothetically able to bring eavesdropping equipment to the US presidential office.

In the meantime, the White House has made no complaints about Shcherbak’s work. The US presidential spokeswoman said the permission to let a Russian reporter make photos of the Trump-Lavrov meeting was not a violation of the protocol. TASS has expressed surprise over the US media’s response and asked Russian and international organizations of journalists to express their attitude to the affair.

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