05 August, 2017
Kislyak said he was simply doing his job as a diplomat by reaching out to the Trump campaign, alleging he also spoke to people on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign team. During the race and after his victory a number of U.S. media outlets and politicians, including Clinton, said that Russian Federation had taken steps to have an impact on the campaign and to support Trump.
Mr Kislyak described the United States accusations against him as absurd and "shameful" for the USA, adding that the official acknowledgement that his phone conversations were bugged was "unhealthy".
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier that Moscow would take retaliatory measures against Washington if the situation with Russia's diplomatic property in the United States was not resolved.
Sergey Kislyak, Russia's former ambassador to Washington, denied Saturday that he had discussed secrets or even the issue of sanctions with now-fired Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn in a series of controversial conversations.
The event comes as congressional investigators look for any and all phone and email records of everyone involved in the meeting Donald Trump Jr. had with a Russian attorney during the 2016 campaign. "There are a few subjects important for Russia-U.S. cooperation, primarily terrorism, and it was one of the subjects we talked about".
"We talked about very simple things".
Answering the presenter's question about a hypothetical possibility to give testimony at the US Congress about Russia's alleged interference in the US presidential election, Kislyak said: "Of course not. Our conversations were legitimate, calm and absolutely transparent". President Trump has said he asked Flynn to resign because he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts Russian officials.
"I did not discuss sanctions with anyone, and rest assured that I carried out my instructions honestly", the diplomat said, adding that Moscow "does not bargain for sanctions" because it considers sanctions to be illegal.
