RUSSIA/STATE/TREASURY/UKRAINE: “Russia called off a meeting later this week with U.S. officials in protest of new U.S. sanctions, and the State Department said Wednesday it regretted Russia’s decision.
The U.S. on Tuesday [6-20-17] blacklisted Ukrainian and Russian officials and entities accused of helping Russia exert its influence in the Crimean peninsula and eastern Ukraine, a move Trump administration officials described as an effort to reinforce sanctions already on the books and part of a regular process to update them.
‘These sanctions didn’t just come out of nowhere,’ State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. ‘Our sanctions related to Crimea will not be lifted until Russia ends its occupation of the peninsula.’
But Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the new sanctions announcement by the U.S. Treasury amounted to a ‘political present’ prepared for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko during his visit to Washington. Mr. Poroshenko met briefly with President Donald Trump on Tuesday.”
-Felicia Schwartz and Paul Soone, “U.S. ‘Regrets’ Russia’s Canceling a Meeting to Protest New Sanctions,” The Wall Street Journal online, June 21, 2017 03:01pm