The filing from special counsel Robert Mueller comes four days before Flynn gets sentenced on a charge of lying to the FBI about his conversations with the then-Russian ambassador to the United States.
The same day that Russian diplomats struck a deal with Turkey over a demilitarized zone in Syria’s last rebel-run region, dozens of Russian businessmen were flying home from Damascus, contracts in hand for trade with a postwar Syria.
The Trump administration is warning Russia that supplying Syria with an advanced missile defense system would be a “major mistake” and should be reconsidered. It also says U.S. forces will not leave Syria until Iran leaves.
The foreign ministers of Russia and China jointly denounced what they described Thursday as the unilateralism of the United States, criticism that underlined their growing rapport on global issues.
On Tuesday, Russian officials claimed that militants are preparing to use chemical agents in Syria and intend to put the blame on the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to Tass, a state-run Russian news agency.
Russia’s foreign minister is urging the United States to negotiate a deal with North Korea to avert war, voicing concern that tensions might spiral out of control.
Seeking leverage with Russia, the Trump administration has reopened consideration of long-rejected plans to give Ukraine lethal weapons, even if that would plunge the United States deeper into the former Soviet republic’s conflict.
Russia’s top diplomat said Sunday his country was ready for more engagement with the United States on North Korea, Syria, Ukraine and other pressing matters, even as Moscow braced for new sanctions from the Trump administration.