1168 forthcoming U.S. economic sanctions. After the December 2016 all-hands meeting, Aven tried to establish a connection to the Trump team. Aven instructed Richard Burt to make contact with the incoming Trump Administration. Burt was on the board of directors for LetterOne (L1), another company headed by Aven, and had done work for Alfa- 1169 Bank. Burt had previously served as U.S. ambassador to Germany and Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs, and one of his primary roles with Alfa-Bank and L1 was to facilitate introductions to business 1170 contacts in the United States and other Western countries. While at a L1 board meeting held in Luxembourg in late December 2016, Aven pulled Burt aside and told him that he had spoken to someone high in the Russian government who expressed interest in establishing a communications 1171 channel between the Kremlin and the Trump Transition Team. Aven asked 1172 for Burt’s help in contacting members of the Transition Team. Although Burt had been responsible for helping Aven build connections in the past, Burt viewed Aven’s request as unusual and outside the normal realm of his dealings 1173 with Aven. Burt, who is a member of the board of CNI (discussed at Volume I, Section 1174 IV.A.4, supra), decided to approach CNI president Dimitri Simes for help facilitating Aven’s request, recalling that Simes had some relationship with 1175 Kushner. At the time, Simes was lobbying the Trump Transition Team, on 1176 Burt’s behalf, to appoint Burt U.S. ambassador to Russia. Burt contacted Simes by telephone and asked if he could arrange a meeting with Kushner to discuss setting up a high-level communications channel 1177 between Putin and the incoming Administration. Simes told the Office that he declined and stated to Burt that setting up such a channel was not a good idea in light of the media attention surrounding Russian influence in the U.S. 1178 presidential election. According to Simes, he understood that Burt was seeking a secret channel, and Simes did not want CNI to be seen as an intermediary between the Russian government and the incoming 1179 Administration. Based on what Simes had read in the media, he stated that