blockbuster annual event that is his sagtage, his spotlight. he spoke to business leaders, said please help usury store normal political dialogue, help the new u.s. administration. i think it was a reference there to sanctions because of course here in moscow, the view is normal political dialogue can t resume while sanctions are in place. and mentioned as well there was reduction in trade between the u.s. and russia, he talked about a lot of economic opportunity. russia has been looking for any clues coming out of the trump administration for that suggested lifting of sanctions trump talked about on the campaign. and it has seen the opposite. they talked about rather than lifting sanctions, talked about strengthening them. it is a painful issue in russia and something as we saw top of the president s mind. clare sebastian in moscow.
development bank that has close ties to the kremlin. what more can you tell us about that player? reporter: well, this is another meeting that happened during the transition apparently on the initiative of sergei kislyak, russian ambassador to the u.s., with gorkov, the head of a development bank in russia, not a commercial bank, has been under u.s. sanction since july, 2014. ukraine related sanctions. the interesting thing about this meeting was the conflicting reports that came out about it. the white house saying this was a meeting with kushner in his capacity as adviser to then president-elect, a conduit. the russian side saying this was a business meeting, part of a road show they were doing in the u.s. there are still a lot of questions surrounding that, not illegal to talk to a bank under sanctions but no business could have been done with it. clare sebastian in moscow. thank you for that insight.
of events lead to deemploymeipl the two duelling nations. let s go live to clare sebastian in moscow. what is being said? reporter: there is a lot of shock and sadness. he was a long serving diplomat. vladimir putin is said to be upset according to his spokesperson. he valued his professionalism and talent. we have seen people leaving flowers here in moscow. the foreign sminut minister ces lavrov leaving a message in the do condolen condolence book. i want to read you a tweet from samantha power.
abide by the minsk agreement to reduce tension in ukraine. ukraine is a key sticking point into russia. russia said repeatedly this is an internal issue. fascinating they are seeing stark differences of opinion coming from the administration. clearly not on the same line with russia. clare sebastian in moscow. thank you. president trump sticking with the line it is more important to investigate the source of all the recent leaks that embarrassed his administration than looking int said when asked about the forced resignation of michael flynn. what was wrong was the way that other people and including yourself were given this information. that was classified information. that s the real problem. how does the press get this information? how do they do it? you know why?
raises tensions within that relationship. for russia, a real cause of concern at this point is the suggestion we heard from sean spicer yesterday that president trump wants crimea to be returned to ukraine. we heard just now from its foreign ministry spokesman saying this would not happen, crimea is part of russia and will not give it back. clare sebastian in moscow. thanks so much. sources tell cnn the white house is in chaos, as it tries to move past the michael flynn controversy. and we re told that top officials aren t speaking to each other because they re try too busy trying to take each other down. our source described it as a game of thrones. and we re finding out more about the leadup to flynn s resignation. the white house says the level of trust between the president and general flynn had deteriorated forcing a change. and now we are told the v.p. was one of the last to find out about the investigation into general flynn. even though he is the one that