“There were contacts,” the Russian Interfax news agency cited Ryabkov as saying. “We are doing this and have been doing this during the election campaign.”
He also said Russia had “sporadic” contact with Clinton’s campaign — though it was “not always productive.”
“Obviously, we know most of the people from (Trump’s) entourage. Those people have always been in the limelight in the United States and have occupied high-ranking positions,” he said without providing names.
“I cannot say that all of them, but quite a few have been staying in touch with Russian representatives. We have just begun to consider ways of building dialogue with the future Donald Trump administration and channels we will be using for those purposes,” he said.
Trump has shot down suggestions that he had ties to Moscow during his bruising campaign for the White House.
His campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks on Thursday denied there were interactions between Russia and the Trump team before Tuesday’s election.
“The campaign had no contact with Russian officials,” she told the Washington Post in an email.