Russian officials believe President’s Trump’s decision to cancel a meeting with President Vladimir Putin may have been based on a “domestic political situation” — like Michael Cohen’s Thursday guilty plea — and not Russia’s actions after a naval clash with Ukraine last week, CNN reported, citing the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
During a press conference on Friday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova questioned President Trump’s rationale, which he explained in a tweet en route to the G-20 summit in Argentina on Thursday, about two hours after the Cohen news broke.
“Was the provocation organized by Kiev in this region the real reason for cancellation?” Zakharova reportedly said. “Publicly, we heard just such an explanation, we took note of it. Is this a reality?”
Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress when he said his work to pursue the development of a Trump Tower in Moscow ended in January 2016, admitting on Thursday that he spoke with Trump about the project throughout the 2016 election.
