Kremlin says it is not in contact with Trump team

Russian officials say they are not in contact with President-elect Donald Trump’s team, according to a report in Reuters.

Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the Kremlin is not speaking to the Trump transition team, according to the report, which cited Russian news agencies. 

Peskov’s statements contradict those from a Russian diplomat last month. The diplomat was quoted by one of the country’s news agencies as claiming there had been contact between Russia and the Trump campaign, according to The New York Times.

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Trump’s team has also denied that claim.

Trump’s former campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said “absolutely not” when asked if members of the campaign had contact with the Russians.

“Those conversations never happened. I hear people saying it like it’s fact on television,” she said.

Trump’s ties and policies toward Russia have come under new scrutiny after a Washington Post report said the CIA believed Russia interfered in the presidential election to help Trump win. Last week, reports said the FBI had also come to the same conclusion.

Trump campaigned on a promise to improve relations with Russia and has praised Putin as a strong leader.

Trump’s transition team slammed the intelligence agency’s assessment and said those claims were being pushed by critics trying to undermine his election win.

“These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” the team said at the time of the CIA.

A number of Republican and Democratic lawmakers have called for further investigation into Russian hacking during the election.