MOSCOW – The Kremlin on Monday issued several sharp, successive denials to questions of whether a senior aide to then president-elect Donald Trump convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin not to retaliate to sanctions issued by then President Barack Obama. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters during a daily conference call that the answer was no, and for several reasons. In late December 2016, Flynn called Kislyak to convince him that Russia should not retaliate against the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats by the Obama administration. Later that day, Putin issued a surprise directive: Russia would not respond immediately to the expulsion of the diplomats. Eventually, once efforts to repair U.S.-Russian relations stalled under Trump, Putin did cut the staff of U.S. diplomats and other government interests in Russia.

Source: National Post December 04, 2017 15:11 UTC