President Trump abruptly canceled a planned bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G-20 summit, on the same day reports surfaced that he once offered the Russian leader a $50 million penthouse in Moscow.
Trump cited Russia’s recent confrontation with Ukrainian ships as the reason for the canceled meeting.
“Based on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned to Ukraine from Russia, I have decided it would be best for all parties concerned to cancel my previously scheduled meeting….,” Trump tweeted, adding in a second tweet, “….in Argentina with President Vladimir Putin. I look forward to a meaningful Summit again as soon as this situation is resolved!”
Based on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned to Ukraine from Russia, I have decided it would be best for all parties concerned to cancel my previously scheduled meeting….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2018
….in Argentina with President Vladimir Putin. I look forward to a meaningful Summit again as soon as this situation is resolved!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2018
Trump’s tweets appeared to catch the Kremlin off guard while Putin was en route to the summit.
Putin’s top spokesman said today that Russia had not yet received official notification of the cancellation from the White House.
Some foreign policy experts say a meeting with Putin would have given Trump the potential opportunity to take the central role among Western leaders in expressing anger over the naval action against Ukraine.
Trump has been unwilling, or unable, to directly confront Putin since his election.
The decision to scuttle the meeting comes on the same day that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about, among other things, having conversations with Trump about a Russian real estate project during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Cohen struck his plea deal today with special counsel Robert Mueller, marking the second time the special counsel’s office has made a major move in its probe just ahead of a planned Trump meeting with Putin.
The special counsel previously indicted 12 Russian military officials just days before Trump met with Putin in Helsinki, Finland.
The summit ended up mired in controversy after Trump publicly sided with Moscow over his own intelligence agencies and refused to condemn Russia for interfering in the 2016 election.
For years, Trump flirted with the idea of opening a massive, Trump-branded skyscraper in Moscow.
After holding his Miss Universe pageant there in 2013, Trump tagged Russian billionaire developer Aras Agalarov in a tweet and promised that “Trump Tower-Moscow” was next.
The project never came to be.
But the Trump Organization’s attempts to get a deal green-lit caught the attention of congressional investigators and Mueller probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether there was any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.
Late today, Buzzfeed News broke the story the Trump Organization planned to give a $50 million penthouse in the planned Trump Tower Moscow to Putin while the company was in negotiations in 2016 to build the development.
Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, discussed the idea with Putin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, two U.S. law enforcement officials told Buzzfeed.
Emin Agalarov, Donald Trump and Aras Agalarov attend the red carpet at Miss Universe Pageant Competition 2013 in Moscow.
Trump Tower Moscow is at the center of the plea deal Cohen reached with Mueller today.
Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to congressional panels about Trump’s Moscow property plans, including his plans to travel to Russia, contacts with Russian officials in connection with the project and how long the property plans were discussed within the Trump Organization.
Court documents unsealed Thursday say Cohen “well knew” his statements to Congress about Trump Tower Moscow were “false and misleading,” stating that he told the lies in order to “minimize links between the Moscow Project and Individual 1,” an apparent reference to Trump.
Cohen also tried to “give the false impression that the Moscow Project ended before ‘the Iowa caucus and … the very first primary,’ in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations.”
However, it was revealed that the discussions surrounding the project extended well into 2016 and Cohen regularly informed Trump about the negotiations.
Trump’s relationship with Putin has been under close scrutiny since the campaign, during which U.S. intelligence agencies say the Kremlin meddled in the presidential contest.