Rudolph Giuliani cancels attendance to Eurasian Economic Union conference in Armenia

US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani has abruptly canceled his scheduled paid appearance at a conference in Armenia next week, The Washington Post reported.

Giuliani, who confirmed to this newspaper on Friday morning that he would attend the event, reversed himself that evening after The Post reported on his participation in the meeting which Russian President Vladimir Putin, heads of states of other Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani are expected to attend.

The agenda for the EAEU conference in Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia, showed Giuliani was the only American scheduled to speak at the gathering.

Giuliani said Friday evening that he was no longer planning to attend the meeting. “I didn’t know Putin was going,” he said in a brief interview.

As per The Washington Post, Giuliani’s decision to take part in the conference astounded national security experts. His appearance would have come days after the release of a whistleblower complaint accusing Trump and Giuliani of pressuring Ukrainian officials for damaging information about US Democrats, especially former Vice President Joe Biden and his family.

The White House and State Department declined to comment.

“I thought I was speaking at an Armenian security conference,” Rudolph Giuliani said Friday evening.

The Eurasian Economic Union comprises Armenia, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.