A top Russian diplomat admitted the Kremlin spoke with members of President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign team during the election, according to the Washington Post.
The Post reported that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said “there were contacts” with Trump’s campaign during the run up to Tuesday’s vote. Ryabkov didn’t confirm the Russians spoke with Trump directly, and instead said it was mostly members of his team.
“Obviously, we know most of the people from his entourage,” Ryabkov said in an interview with state-run media. “Those people have always been in the limelight in the United States and have occupied high-ranking positions. I cannot say that all of them but quite a few have been staying in touch with Russian representatives.”
Trump’s connections with the Russian government were repeatedly raised throughout the campaign, but the president-elect denied any link between him and Moscow.
The country has been blamed for feeding hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, to WikiLeaks. Roger Stone, a former Trump advisor, admitted to coordinating with WikiLeaks on the release of those emails.
Ryabkov said the Kremlin is looking forward to working with the Trump administration.
“We have just begun to consider ways of building dialogue with the future Donald Trump administration and channels we will be using for those purposes,” Ryabkov said in the interview with state media.
