The following article was posted on the Daily Beast website November 16, 2017:
Former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak has said it would take him more than 20 minutes to list all the Trump officials he’s had contact with because the “list is so long.” In an interview aired on Russia’s state-run Channel One television station Thursday, Kislyak dismissed accusations of Russian election meddling as “nonsense” concocted by President Trump’s opponents but acknowledged that he’d had extensive contact with members of Trump’s administration. The list of contacts is “so long,” he said, “that I’m not going to be able to go through it in 20 minutes.” Kislyak, who has been a central figure in the U.S. investigation into the Kremlin’s alleged election interference, declined to give further details on what was discussed with Trump officials but said it was all part of normal diplomatic discourse. Kislyak was recalled as Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. in June. His comments came just a few days after Attorney General Jeff Sessions was grilled by the House Judiciary Committee on his interactions with the Russian ambassador.