Russian minister Lavrov uses live TV appearance alongside US secretary Tillerson to joke about Comey being fired

Russia's foreign minister used a media appearance alongside his US counterpart in Washington to mock Donald Trump's firing of FBI director James Comey.

Mr Trump had unceremoniously fired Mr Comey, on the eve of his meeting with Mr Lavrov at the White House.

Mr Comey was leading an FBI investigation into the Trump campaign team's alleged ties to Russia as well as Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the matter was an "internal affair of the US" and that it will not affect the US-Russia relationship. He has said in the past that the allegations of Russian hacking the Democratic National Committee during the US election was "indecent" without sufficient evidence.

This is Mr Lavrov and Mr Trump's first face-to-face meeting, set to take place in the White House later today.