Angered by the latest round of US sanctions imposed on them, the Russian government has cancelled a high-level meeting between Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Rybakov and Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon.
The US moved on the new sanctions yesterday, targeting 38 individuals and organizations related to “Russian activities in Ukraine.” This move was seen largely as a prelude to President Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
While the US has in recent years felt like they can impose new sanctions on Russia at random times as a matter of course, Russia has become increasingly impatient with such efforts, and the cancelling of this meeting underscores growing Russian frustration with the lack of diplomatic progress.
This adds to the growing diplomatic struggles between the US and Russia, and is further putting into doubt the expected meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin during the upcoming G20 summit. The US downplayed this, saying they’d never formally planned a meeting in the first place, but it had been widely assumed this would be their first face-to-face meeting.
Good. No point in Russia meeting with any of these people until the US shows a slight amount of reason.
The irony is that the US and Russia did the same sort of underhanded, aggressive behavior to control Ukraine, regardless of what Ukrainians want. The US just did a better job of lying to itself, mostly through one-sided media coverage, that Russia was the only bad actor. Free, adversarial press instead of State media and absolute official truth is supposedly central to what makes us ‘the free world’ and others the bad apples.
Somehow free press is now hardly defended by officials, and strangely Iran and Qatar may be doing more to do so than the US government. Maybe the Trump admin just cares far more about winning than maintaining moral authority, an erosion of standing that is not sudden but has been progressing over many presidencies.
Didn’t the Ukrainian government give up its nuclear arsenal it obtained when the Soviet Union dissolved in return for an agreement that Russia would never invade or interfere with it’s sovereignty??? Funny how that’s always left out of the discussion.Just goes to show you can’t trust the Russians even when you sit down and have an agreement with them.Ukraine should’ve just kept it’s nukes as a deterrent for Russia.Isn’t that the argument y’all are making for North Korea and Iran they need nukes to keep the USA from invading?See how that works what’s good for the goose is good for the gander…O…And what does Russia expect America to do allow the Syrian government to drop bombs on our soldiers that are actually training a force that’s fighting ISIS.I don’t care how many trolls comment on Russia’s capability Putin knows his limits this isn’t Obama’s military he helped get a Republican in office so reap what you sow….USA
I agree. Ukraine should have kept its nuclear arsenal.
Oddly, however, you left out a party to the agreement in question. Ukraine did not agree with Russia to transfer its nukes. It agreed with Russia and the United States to transfer its nukes.
Presumably Russia expects the US to not invade Syria and shoot down the Syrian government’s aircraft. Seeing as how the US invasion is a violation of both US and international law, I can’t say that expectation is entirely unreasonable.
Good point…USA