Cyprus Cancels Meet with Lavrov after EU Says Will Step Up Sanctions

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets with his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai in Moscow on September 6, 2022. (Handout / Russian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets with his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai in Moscow on September 6, 2022. (Handout / Russian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
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Cyprus Cancels Meet with Lavrov after EU Says Will Step Up Sanctions

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets with his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai in Moscow on September 6, 2022. (Handout / Russian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets with his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai in Moscow on September 6, 2022. (Handout / Russian Foreign Ministry / AFP)

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades cancelled a meeting scheduled with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in New York after EU foreign ministers agreed to prepare new sanctions against Russia, a government official said on Thursday.

The two had been expected to meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly late on Wednesday, Reuters said.

"In anticipation of the decisions of the EU the guidelines from Brussels to avoid bilateral meetings with Russia were followed," Cyprus government spokesman Marios Pelekanos told state radio.

Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides had earlier participated in a meeting of the EU's foreign ministers in NewYork.

EU member Cyprus has close political and economic ties with Russia, but has followed Brussels lead in imposing sanctions on the country in response to its invasion of Ukraine.



Hillary Clinton, George Soros will Receive the Highest US Civilian Honor

Hillary Clinton speaks during the Democratic National Convention Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
Hillary Clinton speaks during the Democratic National Convention Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
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Hillary Clinton, George Soros will Receive the Highest US Civilian Honor

Hillary Clinton speaks during the Democratic National Convention Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
Hillary Clinton speaks during the Democratic National Convention Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Democratic philanthropist George Soros and actor-director Denzel Washington will be awarded the nation's highest civilian honor on Saturday in a White House ceremony.

The White House said the recipients have made “exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.”

Four medals are to be awarded posthumously. They are going to Fannie Lou Hamer, who founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and laid the groundwork for the 1965 Voting Rights Act; former Attorney General and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy; George W. Romney, who served as both a Michigan governor and secretary of housing and urban development; and Ash Carter, a former secretary of defense, according to The AP.

Kennedy is father to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for health and human services secretary. Romney is the father of former Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, one of Trump's strongest conservative critics.

Major philanthropists receiving the award include Spanish American chef José Andrés, whose World Central Kitchen charity has become one of the world's most recognized food relief organizations, and Bono, the frontman for rock band U2 and a social justice activist.

Sports and entertainment stars being recognized include professional soccer player Lionel Messi; retired Los Angeles Lakers basketball legend and businessman Earvin “Magic” Johnson; actor Michael J. Fox, who is an outspoken advocate for Parkinson’s disease research and development; and William Sanford Nye, known to generations of students as “Bill Nye the Science Guy."

Other awardees include conservationist Jane Goodall; longtime Vogue Magazine editor-in-chief Anna Wintour; American fashion designer Ralph Lauren; American Film Institute founder George Stevens Jr.; entrepreneur and LGBTQ+ activist Tim Gill; and David Rubenstein, co-founder of The Carlyle Group global investment firm.

Last year, Biden bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on 19 people, including the late Medgar Evers, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina and actor Michelle Yeoh.