President Trump told everyone in the world he won’t be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the weekend in Argentina — except Russia.
Trump tweeted out his decision before leaving for the G-20 meeting in Argentina. He said Russia’s seizing of three Ukrainian vessels and detention of 24 sailors meant he had to cancel.
In Moscow Thursday, Russia said it didn’t know anything about it.
“We are flying to Argentina,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Tass, Russia’s state-owned reporting service.
“So far, we have only seen the tweet and the media,” he said. “We have no official information.”
Peskov played down the news by saying if a Trump-Putin meeting isn’t happening, Russia will have more time for “useful meetings on the sidelines of the summit.”
This week, Russia ignored a call from NATO to release the 24 sailors. Instead, a court in Russia-controlled Crimea sentenced them to two months of detention during their trial for breaching Russian territory.
Aside from U.S.-Russia tensions over Ukraine, Trump is facing domestic pressure this week after his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, admitted he lied to Congress about the extent of talks he participated in about a possible deal Trump had in Russia a few years ago. That led Democrats to argue that Cohen’s lies could be a sign that Trump was cooperating more closely with Russia during the 2016 election than he has admitted in public.
