Secret diplomacy not an unusual practice

THE recent revelation that US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner met with the Russian ambassador to Washington Sergey Kislyak during the post-presidential election transition period and discussed with him the idea of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between members of the president-elect's foreign policy team and officials in the Kremlin has created a political storm in Washington.

Indeed, critics of President Trump among the Democrats on Capitol Hill and the mainstream media (MSM) are suggesting that the alleged attempt to launch a diplomatic backchannel between aides to the new American president and associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin was just one more example of the so-called "collusion" between them aimed at impacting the direction of US politics and American foreign policy in a way that could advance the Kremlin's interests.

Some of the critics are even raising accusations of "treason" against Mr Kushner and are calling on President Trump to fire his son-in-law who now handles several domestic and foreign policy issues on his behalf. They insist that at the minimum, the White House should revoke Mr Kushner's top security clearance and ask him to take leave of absence from his job until the ongoing investigations of the Russian connection issue reach their conclusion, which could take months or maybe even years.