93 Russia wanted a good relationship with the Trump Administration. On December 30, 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would not take retaliatory measures in response to the sanctions at that time and would instead “plan . . . further steps to restore Russian-US relations based on 94 the policies of the Trump Administration.” Following that announcement, the President-Elect tweeted, “Great move on delay (by V. Putin) - I always knew he 95 was very smart!” On December 31, 2016, Kislyak called Flynn and told him that Flynn’s request had been received at the highest levels and Russia had chosen not to 96 retaliate in response to the request. Later that day, Flynn told McFarland about this follow-up conversation with Kislyak and Russia’s decision not to escalate 97 the sanctions situation based on Flynn’s request. McFarland recalled that 98 Flynn thought his phone call had made a difference. Flynn spoke with other incoming Administration officials that day, but does not recall whether they 99 discussed the sanctions. Flynn recalled discussing the sanctions issue with incoming Administration 100 official Stephen Bannon the next day. Flynn said that Bannon appeared to know about Flynn’s conversations with Kislyak, and he and Bannon agreed that 101 they had “stopped the train on Russia’s response” to the sanctions. On January 3, 2017, Flynn saw the President-Elect in person and thought they discussed the Russian reaction to the sanctions, but Flynn did not have a specific recollection of telling the President-Elect about the substance of his calls with 102 Kislyak. Members of the intelligence community were surprised by Russia’s decision 103 not to retaliate in response to the sanctions. When analyzing Russia’s response, they became aware of Flynn’s discussion of sanctions with 104 Kislyak. Previously, the FBI had opened an investigation of Flynn based on 105 his relationship with the Russian govemment. Flynn’s contacts with Kislyak 106 became a key component of that investigation. 2. President-Elect Trump is Briefed on the Intelligence Community’s Assessment of Russian Interference in the Election and Congress