Rudy Giuliani backs out of appearing at Kremlin-sponsored conference

Rudy Giuliani has abruptly decided to cancel a paid appearance at a Kremlin-backed, anti-Western conference in Armenia next week, telling the Washington Post: "I didn’t know [Vladimir] Putin was going. Discretion is the better part of valor."

The big picture: The personal lawyer to President Trump attended the event last year as a "private citizen" and was paid to be on a panel led by Putin adviser Sergey Glazyev, who has been under U.S. sanctions since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Giuliani has played a role in promoting unsubstantiated allegations about Joe Biden and Ukraine at the heart of a whistleblower complaint that has prompted an impeachment inquiry against Trump.

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