CIA Director William Burns and the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergei Narishkin, met Monday in Ankara, in an unexpected contact that, according to the White House, does not imply «negotiations of any kind» on the part of the United States.
A spokesman for the US National Security Council explained to CNN that the meeting dealt with the existing «risks», in particular the possibility of a nuclear escalation or others for «strategic stability», within a context marked by the Russian military offensive on Ukraine.
Burns, a former ambassador to Moscow and a recurring interlocutor — he traveled in November 2021 to the Russian capital — also planned to discuss with Narishkin the situation of persons «unjustly» detained in Russia, according to the U.S. spokesman.
«He is not going to discuss the resolution of the war in Ukraine,» he clarified, although Washington did notify Kiev of the meeting before it took place. «We stick to one fundamental principle: nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,» the source explained.
