Several top officials in the Trump administration have refused a meeting with Russia’s Ambassador to the U.S., Politico reports.
The Ambassador, Anatoly Antonov, recently wrote a letter to Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch complaining that the breakdown in U.S.-Russian relations has deprived him of the usually normal meetings with top administration officials.
“I have to face difficulties in setting up contacts with U.S. high-ranking officials. A lot of meeting requests with the leadership of U.S. agencies and members of Congress were either left without a response, or simply refused under no pretext,” he complained in the letter obtained by Politico.
He noted that the administration officials which have refused to meet with him include:
Vice President Mike Pence, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
“It seems to me that atmosphere in Washington is poisoned — it’s a toxic atmosphere,” Antonov lamented in a recent Today show interview, adding “I don’t remember such bad shape of our relations.”