The Kremlin confirmed on Wednesday that CIA Director John Ratcliffe held talks with Russian intelligence officials during an unusual visit to Moscow this week. However, he did not meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the communication between the two countries' intelligence services as positive, but did not provide details on the issues discussed during the meetings.
"All I can tell you is that there were contacts through the security services. These contacts often continue even during the most difficult periods in bilateral relations. Even our president, in fact, has spoken about this," Peskov declared.
According to him, it is still early to determine whether these contacts can affect the improvement of relations between Moscow and Washington.
"It is still too early to say to what extent this can help pull our bilateral relations out of the deep crisis they are currently in," the Kremlin spokesman added.
Ratcliffe's visit is the first made public by a CIA director to Moscow since November 2021. At that time, before the launch of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, his predecessor William Burns held talks with Vladimir Putin.
Meanwhile, sources cited by Reuters report that the United States contacted Ukraine last week, asking it to avoid attacks on Moscow, St. Petersburg and part of northern Russia during Ratcliffe's stay in the country.
According to the same sources, the American request to avoid attacks included Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
