MOSCOW — The intense attention being given to the new US attorney general’s meetings with Russia’s ambassador could obstruct improved Washington-Moscow relations, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin says Thursday.
The spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, tells reporters he did not know about the meetings last year between Ambassador Sergei Kislyak and Jeff Sessions, who at that time was a US senator. Sessions also was a policy adviser to President Donald Trump’s campaign.
Matryoshkas, traditional Russian wooden dolls, including a doll of US President Donald Trump, top, are displayed for sale in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, March 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
News of the two meetings has added fuel to the controversy over whether Russia was improperly involved with Trump’s campaign. It spurred calls in Congress for Sessions to recuse himself from an investigation into alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election.
Peskov says it is normal for Russian diplomats to meet with US lawmakers. Sessions’ office has said the meetings were in his capacity as a senator rather than as a Trump campaign adviser.
He characterizes the reaction to the news of the Sessions meetings as “an emotional atmosphere (that) leads to resistance to the idea of some kind of US-Russia dialogue.”
— AP
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