Russian diplomat cancels meeting over new US sanctions

Russia’s deputy foreign minister has cancelled a scheduled meeting with Thomas A. Shannon Jr., the under secretary of State for political affairs, the State Department said Wednesday.

Shannon, who is currently meeting with U.K. officials in London, was set to meet with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov in St. Petersburg on Friday.

According to the AP, Ryabkov said in a statement that “the situation is not conducive to holding a round of this dialogue” with the U.S. 

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The announcement that Ryabkov would not meet with Shannon came a day after the U.S. Treasury Department added 38 individuals and entities, including two Russian government officials, to its list of those facing sanctions for Russian intervention in Ukraine and Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

The decision to widen the list came as President Trump met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko at the White House.

Nauert defended the sanctions on Wednesday, saying that penalties were in line with longstanding U.S. policy and should not have come as a surprise to the Kremlin.

“Let’s remember that these sanctions didn’t just come out of nowhere,” she said. “Our targeted sanctions were imposed in response to Russia’s ongoing violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbor, Ukraine.”

Tensions have heightened between the U.S. and Russia in recent months amid ongoing disputes over the civil war in Syria, as well as a series of ongoing investigations in the U.S. into the Kremlin’s role in the 2016 presidential election.

On the campaign trail and after entering the White House, Trump pressed for warmer relations with Moscow and increased cooperation in fighting international terrorism. 

Trump is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time next month during a Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

-This post was updated at 12:45 p.m.