The Kremlin continued to deny association with the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr.

The Kremlin continued to deny association with the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr.

Kremlin officials on Wednesday likened reports about Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer who has been labeled as “Kremlin-connected” to a dragging soap opera saga like some on television in the United States.

“This is the next, predictable spin to the plot following the bilateral meeting,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, referencing last week's meeting in Hamburg between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Trump.

“Once again, you shouldn’t drag us into this TV show, we don’t want to participate,” he said.

The Kremlin does not know the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and had nothing to do with the meeting, Peskov said.

"We have never been in contact with this lawyer and, therefore, we have nothing more to say about it," he said.

Peskov declined to identify which American television drama series he was referring to when asked by a Russian reporter to elaborate. The Netflix series "House of Cards" â€" which has dramatized a tense relationship between the U.S. president, played by Kevin Spacey, and his Russian counterpart â€" is well known in Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also expressed frustration with the nonstop Western media coverage of the Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 and Trump Jr.'s released emails on the matter. He said there was still no facts to prove Russia had tried to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

"It is amazing how serious people are making an elephant out of a fly,” Lavrov said at a news conference in Brussels. His comments were broadcast on Russian state television. 

Veselnitskaya said this week that she met with Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and close advisor, and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort in June 2016 after a m eeting was set up by publicist Rob Goldstone. The publicist reached out to Trump Jr., saying that he wanted to arrange a meeting with a “Russian-government lawyer” who had incriminating information about Hillary Clinton.

According to emails posted online by Trump Jr., the meeting was arranged at the request of Emin Agalarov, the son of the billionaire developer Aras Agalarov.

The Agalarov family partnered with Trump in 2013 to bring the Miss Universe contest to Moscow. The older Agalarov is the head of the Crocus Group, one of Russia’s largest developers. Putin presented Aras Agalarov in 2013 with the Kremlin’s Order of Honor for his achievements in the development industry.  

Emin Agalarov is a singer who once featured the elder Trump in his music video. In interviews before Trump’s election, Emin Agalarov described a close friendship with the Trump siblings.

“I’m not going to comment,” Emin Agalarov said when reached by telephone in Moscow by a Los Angeles Times reporter  Wednesday.

Agalarov asked that all questions be directed to his press office, which had not immediately responded to an email request for an interview.   

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