Boris Johnson's visit to Moscow descended into a slanging match as the Russians accused him of "making up" allegations of Brexit meddling in an ugly public disagreement.
Mr Johnson's trip to Moscow, the first undertaken by a UK foreign secretary in five years, was aimed at breaking the deadlock between the two nations.
But the Foreign secretary and his counterpart traded blows over allegations of Russian hacking in British elections as Mr Johnson became the first to officially call the nation out on its actions.
The extraordinary exchanges, which played out in front of journalists and diplomats, saw the two men accuse each other of being dishonest as Mr Lavrov claimed there had been no attempts to derail the British democratic process via cyber hacking.
Interrupting, Mr Johnson rejected the claim, stating instead that none of the attempts had been successful and pointedly referring to widespread Russian interference in elections around the world.
It came as Mr Johnson refused pointedly to answer when asked if he trusted his counterpart Sergei Lavrov or not, despite the Russian minister saying that he did.
Later, as the two men wrapped up the press conference after a two hour bi-lateral meeting which was at times fraught, the British foreign secretary joked that he had handed his coat and hat over to Mr Lavrov in a show of trust and affection.
"There was nothing in the pockets", Mr Lavrov said, prompting Mr Johnson to reply in surprise: "You've checked. How do you know!".
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link to www.telegraph.co.uk]
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