Russia maintains unofficial contacts with Kiev. Official contacts were held during the course of several rounds of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, Yuri Ushakov, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, told journalist Pavel Zarubin, quoted by Russian media, BTA reported.
"We have both open and closed contacts with the Kiev regime. There were open contacts when we were conducting several rounds of negotiations," Ushakov said, commenting on the trip of a Russian entrepreneur to Kiev to convey necessary information to Moscow.
On June 5, at a plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, President Putin said that three weeks ago an entrepreneur visited Kiev and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He did not name this person, recalls the publication of the Russian parliament "Parlamentskaya Gazeta".
Ushakov specified that it is a fairly large businessman whom many people know, but he also did not specify who he is.