Russia diplomat appears to scold NBC News’s Andrea Mitchell

UPDATED 10:14 a.m.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday appeared to scold NBC News’s Andrea Mitchell when she tried asking Secretary of State Rex Tillerson a question.

“Mr. Secretary, the Russians don’t believe the intelligence,” Mitchell says in video circulated by Russian media at the opening of the Tillerson-Lavrov press conference in Moscow. “How confident are you, Mr. Secretary—?”

Lavrov then seems to cut Mitchell off, saying in English: “Who was bringing you up?

{mosads}“Who was giving you your manners, you know?” Lavrov said before switching to Russian and beginning his remarks. 

In a statement provided to The Hill, Mitchell, NBC News’s chief foreign affairs correspondent, suggested that she was not Lavrov’s target, but that Moscow wanted to suggest that she was.

She noted that she was standing behind Lavrov and that another journalist, The Washington Post’s Carol Morello, was also asking questions to Lavrov.

“My colleague Carol Morello was the brave journalist who started asking questions. Lavrov was looking right at her. I was on the opposite side of the room, behind him, out of sight. Perhaps I was a convenient foil, but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t his target,” she said.

Here’s another video of the incident from ABC News, that appears to show that Lavrov might have been responding to another reporter: 

As #Tillerson and Lavrov enter room for photo-op, reporter yells question at Tillerson. Lavrov asks “Who gave you your manners?” pic.twitter.com/2OJCRQrSzC

— Patrick Reevell (@Reevellp) April 12, 2017

The remarks came during during Tillerson’s first visit to Russia since becoming President Trump’s secretary of State and amid growing tension between the U.S. and Russia over Syrian President Bashar Assad’s recent actions during his nation’s ongoing civil war.

Trump ordered a missile strike in Syria last week following reports that forces loyal to Assad conducted a chemical strike on Syrian citizens in the northern part of the country.

Lavrov earlier Wednesday accused the U.S. of an “unlawful attack” against Syria, adding that Moscow would not abandon its longstanding support of Assad.

“We consider it of the utmost importance to prevent the risks of replay of similar action in the future,” he said of Trump’s strike.

Mitchell was escorted from a State Department press conference in March after repeatedly trying to question Tillerson about China and Russia.

The veteran reporter on Monday criticized Tillerson for shunning the press when making major diplomatic trips.

“You should not be flying into Beijing without a press corps. You should not be going to Moscow without the press corps. It’s wrong.”

Tillerson reportedly left the press pool behind when he went to the Kremlin earlier for an unannounced visit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The US Sec of State did NOT bring his press pool to the Kremlin for his meeting with the Russian president.

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) April 12, 2017