Kremlin says meetings between Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and state bank officials were 'normal business'

Senior White House adviser Jared Kushneras attends US President Donald Trump's press conference at the White House in Washington, DC on Feb 16, 2017. PHOTO: AFP

MOSCOW (AFP) - The Kremlin on Tuesday (March 28) said that meetings between senior state bank officials and Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and his company were "normal business".

Kushner, 36, one of Trump's top aides, was his intermediary with foreign governments during the 2016 presidential campaign and is set to appear before a Senate panel investigating possible collusion with Moscow.

"There were dozens of meetings, among them with Mr Kushner's company and with Mr Kushner himself," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

"It's normal business," he said, adding that the Kremlin was not aware of these meetings at the time as they were "routine work" of the bank.

Russia's state Vneshekonombank (VEB) on Tuesday confirmed that Kushner met its executives in 2016, after The New York Times reported that Kushner met VEB chief Sergei Gorkov.

The bank said in an e-mailed statement to AFP that its management met on several occasions in 2016 with representatives of the world's leading financial institutions "including with the chief of Kushner Companies, Jared Kushner". The meetings were "in a 'roadshow' format" regarding the bank's "development strategy until 2021", the statement said.

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