The Kremlin says it was unaware of what it called “routine business” activity between U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and officials from state-owned Russian development bank Vneshekonombank.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, made the comment in a regular telephone briefing with journalists on March 28.

It came a day after the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee said that Kushner will testify in a probe of alleged Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The New York Times reported on March 27 that Kushner met once with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak after Trump won the November 8 election, and that Kisylak asked for another meeting to which Kushner sent an aide in his place.

Kushner later met with Vneshekonombank chief Sergei Gorkov.

Peskov said that “tens of meetings were held and one of these meetings was with Kushner’s company and with him. It is routine business.”

Peskov said such meetings are not coordinated with the Kremlin and are the “exclusive prerogative” of the bank’s management.

White House spokeswoman Hope Hicks said the meetings were “inconsequential.”

Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, was in charge of foreign contacts for the president-elect in the interim period before his January 20 inauguration.

Based on reporting by The New York Times, Reuters, and TASS
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