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Also see: Anatoly Antonov; Jeff Sessions; Michael Flynn; Jared Kushner; backchannels;
Jump to: 2017; 2018;
Undated: Sergey Ivanovich Kislyak (born 7 September 1950) is a Russian senior diplomat and politician. Since September 2017, he has represented Mordovia in the Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian legislature.[2][3] Previously he served as the Ambassador of Russia to the United States from 2008 to 2017. From 2003 to 2008, he was the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and from 1998 to 2003, he served as the Ambassador of Russia to Belgium and Russia's Head of Mission to NATO.
Dubbed "the diplomat's diplomat" by CNN, Kislyak was Russia's top presence in the U.S. during his nine-year tenure in Washington, D.C.,[4] a period of increasing political tension between the two countries.[5] Kislyak became a key figure in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, receiving significant media coverage while denying that Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee. However, Kislyak's meetings with advisers to then President-elect Donald Trump became a subject of investigation by U.S. intelligence officials.[6] In May 2017, Trump held a meeting with Kislyak and Sergei Lavrov and disclosed classified information about ISIS, an incident which was leaked to the press and became a scandal.[7]
After nearly a decade in the U.S., Kislyak returned to Moscow in July 2017 and was formally released from his duties in August,[1] succeeded by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Anatoly Antonov.[8][9]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Kislyak
-- 2017 --
July 11: The USRBC [U.S.-Russia Business Council] hosted a members-only farewell reception for Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak on Tuesday, July 11, at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, DC. Ambassador Kislyak has served as Russia’s representative to the United States since 2008 and has been a reliable and thoughtful interlocutor for the American business community during his time in Washington. Thank you for joining us in wishing Ambassador Kislyak the best of luck in his future endeavors.
https://usrbc.org/viewEvent.html?productId=9496
November 16: Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak said on Wednesday that it would take him more than 20 minutes to name all of the Trump officials he's met with or spoken to on the phone.
"First, I'm never going to do that," he said. "And second, the list is so long that I'm not going to be able to go through it in 20 minutes."
Kislyak made the remarks in a sprawling interview with Russia-1, a popular state-owned Russian television channel. In the interview, which a Russian media expert said resembled "late night American television," he also joked about American investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, called U.S. President Donald Trump "witty," and said that U.S.-Russian relations were worse than at any point since the end of the Cold War.
The interview followed a contentious day of testimony for Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions was grilled by representatives on the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday over whether he lied about meetings he had with Kislyak last year while he was a senator.
Sessions met twice with Kislyak last year, including once at the Republican National Convention and another time in Sessions' senate office, where the two reportedly discussed campaign-related matters.
Sessions, who was the first senator to endorse Trump's presidential bid, said during his confirmation hearing that he "did not have communications with the Russians."
Following reports that Sessions had met twice with Kislyak during the campaign, Sessions issued a letter to Congress saying his previous testimony had been "correct," but acknowledged the two incidents. He also recused himself "from any existing or future investigations of any matters related in any way to the campaigns for President of the United States."
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/16/kislyak-wont-name-trump-officials-hes-met-because-list-is-so-long.html
-- 2018 --
July 18: Accused spy Maria Butina met with Russia's former US ambassador
The woman charged with spying for Moscow in the US met previously with the former Russian ambassador to Washington whose contacts with Trump advisers have raised concerns among investigators.
Photographs of Maria Butina with Sergey Kislyak were among the files taken from Butina’s electronic devices by FBI agents, according to prosecutors. The date of the photographs was not specified.
Erik Kenerson, the assistant US attorney, has cited Butina’s encounter with Kislyak as proof that she was in touch with diplomatic or consular officials and must be detained while awaiting trial.
“If Ms Butina decides to go to any sort of embassy, diplomatic mission, gets put in a diplomatic car that has been so registered with the department of state, there is nothing at that point anyone in law enforcement can do to get her,” Kenerson told a court in Washington on Wednesday.
In May last year it was reported that Kislyak had been heard by US spies telling Moscow that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, had proposed setting up a back channel for private conversations between Russian officials and Trump’s team during the final weeks of Barack Obama’s presidency.
US authorities allege that Butina worked to infiltrate the National Rifle Association (NRA) as part of an operation to influence the Republican party and set up secret communications with American politicians. They have pointed to emails and other electronic messages in which Butina allegedly described her efforts in detail.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/19/maria-butina-russia-spying-sergey-kislyak-ambassador-meeting
December 13: Associates claim Flynn was in contact with Sergey Kislyak about "grand bargain" during 2016 campaign
Flynn was allegedly in touch with Kislyak not only after the 2016 election but during the race, as well
... reporters interviewed two Flynn associates who asked for anonymity—and both of them discussed their conversations with Flynn. One of them, according to Corn and Friedman, alleges that Flynn and Kislyak discussed “a grand bargain in which Moscow would cooperate with the Trump Administration to resolve the Syrian conflict and Washington would end or ease up on the sanctions imposed on Russia for its annexation of Crimea and military intervention in Ukraine.”
... [David Corn/Dan Friedman] stress that “had Flynn privately met or communicated with Kislyak during the summer or fall” in 2016, “it would mean Trump’s chief national security aide was secretly interacting with the representative of a foreign power as that government was mounting information and cyber warfare against the United States.”
https://www.salon.com/2018/12/13/associates-claim-flynn-was-in-contact-with-sergey-kislyak-about-grand-bargain-during-2016-campaign_partner/
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