FOREIGN POLICY/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Russia has canceled a meeting between senior US and Russian officials that was aimed at resolving problems in the relationship between the two countries.
The announcement comes after the US announced an expansion of sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities in response to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
The previously planned meeting between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Raybkov and US Under Secretary of State Tom Shannon was due to take place in St Petersburg.
‘As we know, in the next few days there were plans to continue the bilateral consultations on the *irritants* that we have accumulated in our Russian-American relations, plans to find ways out of the extremely difficult situation in which the American side wore the partnership and cooperation with Russia down,’ a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry said.”
-Zachary Cohen, Jill Dougherty, and Lara Koran, “Russia cancels talks with US over tightening of sanctions,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, June 21, 2017 02:30pm