Russian  Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that a 'whole array' of Trump advisers and members of the Trump campaign supported contacts with Russian representatives during the election. That's something both sides denied. In October, the US government formally accused Russia of attempting to subvert the election by means of cyberattacks against Democratic Party servers. Later other security experts found evidence that a server in Trump Towers was secretly communicating with Russia no a regular basis using methods familiar to Russian organised crime. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the charge as hysteria and a ploy to distract voters from the failings of the candidates.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency that there was contact which was supported by most of Trump's campaign. .

Another influential Russian, pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov, admitted supplying Wikileaks with data damaging to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.  Russia and Wikileaks denied this but it looks like the Obama administration accusation of Russia of being behind the leaks was correct.

Trump's relations with Russia were one of the most contentious issues of the campaign, especially in light of his favorable remarks about Putin as a strong leader and the Democratic claims of cyberattacks. His business empire was believed to have been propped up by money from Russian oligarchs. 

The Clinton campaign also called on the FBI to disclose what it knew about contacts between Trump and Russia, following a report in Slate online magazine of thousands of apparent connection attempts between a mail server operated on behalf of the Trump Organisation and computers inside a Russian company, Alfa Bank in Moscow.

Putin was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump on his victory on Wednesday. Russia, he said, was ready to fully restore relations with the United States, following a period of tension over Russian military operations in Syria.