Monitoring Desk
MOSCOW: Russia’s SVR Foreign Intelligence Service chief Sergei Naryshkin said Tuesday that his meeting with US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns was possible, TASS news agency reported.
The Head of Russia’s SVR Foreign Intelligence Service, Naryshkin, met Burns in Ankara in November last year.
US officials said at the time that CIA chief Burns had warned Naryshkin about the consequences of using nuclear weapons and highlighted the issue of US prisoners in Russia.
To a question about another such meeting, Naryshkin told TASS: “It is possible.”
Russian, US spy chiefs meeting in Ankara
Naryshkin said the meeting with William Burns had been meaningful and had allowed Moscow to clarify its position, the TASS news agency reported.
Burns is a former United States (US) ambassador to Russia who was posted in Moscow in late 2021 by President Joe Biden to caution Vladimir Putin about the troop build-up around Ukraine.
Naryshkin said Russia had “unprecedented” cooperation with China, including exchanges of large quantities of operational and signals intelligence, TASS said.
He said Russia was building up broad intelligence connections with its ally Iran, saying that “some special services are our partners.”
Naryshkin also said he spoke at intervals to unidentified heads of European spy agencies about the situation in Ukraine, TASS reported.
