Russian intelligence chief says he spoke to CIA head about Ukraine in June, say TASS news agency

Burns and Naryshkin have maintained contact since Ukraine-Russia war began, even though ties between the two countries are at their lowest point since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, attends a military parade on Victory Day, which marks the 76th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Red Square in central Moscow, Russia | File Photo: REUTERS

Moscow: Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin said on Wednesday that he had held a phone call with his CIA counterpart William Burns in late June to discuss “what to do with Ukraine”, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.

Last month, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported that Burns had phoned Naryshkin to assure the Kremlin that the United States had no role in a brief mutiny by Russia’s Wagner mercenary group on June 23-24.

Burns and Naryshkin have maintained a line of communication since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine at a time when other direct contacts between the two countries are at a minimum, with relations at their lowest point since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

TASS quoted Naryshkin as saying that it was possible the two could meet in person.

Their last such publicly known meeting was in Turkey last November, when U.S. officials said Burns had warned Russia about the consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and raised the issue of U.S. prisoners in Russia.

(Reporting by Reuters; writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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