by Itunuoluwa Adebo

The White House was taken by the Russian government allowing  its state news agency to post photographs of an Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russia’s ambassador to the US.

Photos of the  meeting were taken by a Russian state news media photographer,  a day after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey amid questions about possible Trump campaign collusion with Moscow, were ultimately posted by Russia’s news agency, TASS. The White House did not post photos of the meeting although an official White House photographer was also in the room, the White House said. The State Department did post photos of Lavrov’s meeting with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, but that was open to the press.

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The White House officials cried wolf  that”They tricked us, and that’s the problem with the Russians — they lie,” the official added.
The Russians used the photos to troll the White House in its social media posts Wednesday. The Russian Foreign Ministry posted a photo of a smiling US President shaking hands with Lavrov on Twitter, adding strange and ironic optics to the questions already swirling around the White House over Comey’s firing.

#Lavrov: Was FBI Director James Comey fired? You’re kidding! pic.twitter.com/5OXNKBF2QA

— MFA Russia ?? (@mfa_russia) May 10, 2017

The White House official insisted it is standard practice to keep presidential meetings with lower-level foreign officials lowkey, as opposed to visits from heads of state, which typically come with greater press coverage. In addition to posting the Lavrov-Trump picture, the foreign ministry also posted video of Lavrov joking about Comey’s firing. The White House had blocked US reporters from photographing the meeting, only allowing White House and Russian photographers to capture images of Trump’s interactions with Lavrov