Jeff Sessions controversy: Russian Federation denies its U.S. ambassador is a spy

Multiple conversations between Flynn and Kislyak had been intercepted by US intelligence.

Asked whether reports, such as the ones on contacts between Sessions and Kislyak could damage Russia-US relations, Peskov said “the negative effect was, probably, obvious” but it was US’ internal issue and Moscow “has no intention to interfere”.

When Trump delivered an invitation-only address on foreign policy in Washington, D.C., in April 2016, there was Kislyak, sitting in the front row.

Although it’s not improper for an incoming administration to hold meetings with foreign ambassadors, the NY Times makes pointed mention of how “all meetings between Trump associates and Russians are now significant”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday dismissed reports that Kislyak was a spy and a recruiter for the KGB as “fake news”.

Top US Democrats demanded the resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions Thursday over his failure to disclose that he met twice with Russia’s ambassador to Washington during last year’s election campaign.

During his first debate against Clinton, Trump says he doesn’t know who hacked the DNC. “He is a veteran diplomat”, said John McLaughlin, who was acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency during the Clinton administration.

As candidate Trump was charging that the USA election was “rigged” against him, Russian diplomats around the country sought to send election monitors to us polling stations in several states. “Our job is to understand”.

According to Politico, Kislyak is “an engineer by training” and started his experience in the United States in the early 1980s when he worked for the Soviet mission at the United Nations in New York City, and later with the Russian Embassy in Washington.

During the 1990s, Kislyak was first the deputy director and then director of the Soviet and then Russian foreign ministry’s department of global scientific and technical cooperation.

The official calls the sit-down at New York’s Trump Tower a “brief courtesy meeting”. During his third extended posting in the United States, Kislyak was “at the heart of a political firestorm in Washington” due to his association with those close to President Donald Trump. But even he describes Kislyak as low-key, serious and not especially outgoing. I wonder how the police of those countries would respond in that case.

It was all in good humor, Vershbow says, and that’s the kind of ambassador Kislyak is – patriotic but personable.