“It is clear that people who are called as being part of his entourage, for the most part, are known to us,” Mr. Rybakov said at the time. “These are people who were always on display, who occupied important posts.”

He continued, “I wouldn’t say that all of them, but quite a few of them, were in touch with the Russian representatives.”

Mr. Flynn resigned as national security adviser Monday night after revelations that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of his Russia contacts.

In particular, the talks involved new sanctions that the Obama administration had imposed in retaliation for Russian meddling in the election. Trump administration officials, based on incomplete information from Mr. Flynn, had denied that the sanctions were discussed. (Mr. Peskov told journalists on Friday that “some conversations between Mr. Flynn and Mr. Kislyak took place,” but he did not provide details.)

Mr. Peskov did not directly dispute the Times article — or a CNN article that found that “high-level advisers close to then-presidential nominee Donald Trump were in constant communication during the campaign with Russians known to U.S. intelligence” — but he suggested that the truth was hard to discern.



“Let’s not trust newspaper articles, because it is very difficult to differentiate between what is true and what is fake,” Mr. Peskov was quoted by the Russian news agency Interfax as saying. “There are references to five sources, but not a single is named.”

The Times quoted four current or former intelligence officials, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity because the information is classified.