Russian President Vladimir Putin says relations between Moscow and Washington have deteriorated in the early months of Donald Trump's presidency.

"It can be said that the level of trust at the working level, especially at the military level, has not become better but most likely has degraded," Putin said in an interview broadcast by state television channel Mir Wednesday.

Putin also asserted that Syria has complied with an agreement to dispose of chemical weapons "so far as we know." He reiterated previous Russian assertions that the chemical weapons attack last week that prompted a US Tomahawk missile barrage on a Syrian air base was either a rebel provocation or caused by Syrian warplanes hitting a rebel chemical weapons facility.

The interview was broadcast as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held his first meeting with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and word came that putin might meet with Tillerson as well.

"There is a certain possibility," the meeting will take place, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.

Peskov also said Western powers' calls on Russia to stop supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad amount to giving terrorists a free hand.

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.