Russian foreign intelligence chief confirms meeting with CIA director

Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergey Naryshkin has confirmed that he met with CIA Director John Ratcliffe in Moscow and discussed issues within the remit of the intelligence services.

According to the SVR chief, his meeting with Ratcliffe was “nothing unusual,” Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

“In the practice of intelligence services, meetings between their heads, either in person or online, are part of our work. I should tell you that I meet practically every week with the head of one intelligence service or another, with an intelligence organisation from every continent in the world. So the meeting that took place with John Ratcliffe was also a working format,” Naryshkin said.

The CIA director visited Moscow on August 25. It was the first visit by a CIA chief to Moscow since November 2021.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said Ratcliffe held talks with representatives of Russia’s intelligence services, but did not specify who exactly.

US President Donald Trump described the trip as “partly routine.”

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov