President-elect Donald Trump's team "had contacts" with the Russian government during the campaign, the country's deputy foreign minister confirmed to the state-run Interfax news agency.
Sergei Ryabakov confirmed to the agency on Thursday that “there were contacts” prior to the election.
He added that "we will continue this work, of course," but did not detail who the contacts were or what was discussed.
Trump has repeatedly denied claims that his campaign had been in contact or had a relationship with President Vladimir Putin's regime in the run-up to the election.
"Obviously, we know most of the people from his entourage. Those people have always been in the limelight in the United States and have occupied high-ranking positions. I cannot say that all of them but quite a few have been staying in touch with Russian representatives,” Ryabokov said, in a translation published by the Washington Post.
"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."
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also told Bloomberg that Russian embassy staff had met with members of Trump's campaign, adding this was "normal practice," but that Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's campaign had turned down similar requests to meet.
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