THE MOSCOW CONNECTION
Russian diplomat’s comments raise new speculation about Trump’s ties to Putin regime,
MOSCOW— Russian government officials conferred with members of Donald Trump’s campaign team, a senior Russian diplomat said Thursday, a disclosure that could reopen scrutiny of the Kremlin’s role in the president-elect’s bitter race against Hillary Clinton.
The statement came from deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov, who said in an interview with the state-run Interfax news agency that “there were contacts” with the Trump team.
“Obviously, we know most of the people from his entourage,” Ryabkov said.
“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 was quoted as saying.
Ryabkov provided no further details, and his remarks drew a swift denial from Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks, who said the campaign had “no contact with Russian officials” before Tuesday’s election.
Nevertheless, the assertion from Moscow attracted attention from national security experts after a presidential campaign that the Kremlin, according to U.S. officials, sought to influence in unprecedented ways.
Washington, for instance, accused the Kremlin of orchestrating hacks into the Democratic National Committee and the emails of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta that led to politically embarrassing disclosures by WikiLeaks.
Trump faced criticism during the campaign for his positive statements about Russian President Vladimir Putin and for other Russia-friendly policy stances, although he repeatedly denied having financial or other ties to Moscow.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said staffers at the Russian Embassy in Washington met with members of Trump’s campaign — meetings she described as “normal practice.” Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign refused similar requests for meetings, Zakharova told the agency.
Asked later for clarification, a Foreign Ministry official declined to elaborate on Ryabkov’s remarks, but said standard diplomacy called for “contact with the leaders in the campaign” on matters such as clarifying statements by the candidate or conveying interview requests from Russian journalists.
The ministry official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
A Clinton campaign official who was asked to comment on Zakharova’s statement answered with a oneword email: “false.”
In September, Trump was interviewed by host Larry King for a segment broadcast on RT America, part of a state-owned Russian media network.
In the interview, Trump criticized the U.S. news media, calling it “unbe- lievably dishonest.” A Trump spokesperson said the interview had been a “favour” to King, a former CNN host and a friend of Trump’s, and that the campaign did not know the interview would appear on RT America.
Putin throughout the campaign denied that the Kremlin was interfering with the U.S. elections.
While Russian officials were openly jubilant about Trump’s victory, Ryabkov also said that Moscow “does not cherish any special hopes in the wake of Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president.”
“We do not feel any euphoria,” Ryabkov told Interfax.
“We wouldn’t like our public, or at least the Interfax subscribers, to have the impression that we are overwhelmed with some rosy anticipation.”