WASHINGTON
US, Russia spy chiefs agree to hold regular contacts
Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe attends U.S. President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 04, 2025 in Washington, DC.
The heads of U.S. and Russian spy agencies have have spoken by phone and agreed to keep up regular contacts to lower the temperature in U.S.-Russia relations, news reports said on Wednesday.
In the first such contact in several years, CIA chief John Ratcliffe and the head of Russia's external intelligence agency SVR Sergei Naryshkin spoke by phone on Tuesday, the state TASS agency said.
They "agreed on regular contact" between their agencies "in order to contribute to the international stability and security, as well as a decrease in confrontation in relations between Moscow and Washington".
The call was the first such contact since U.S. President Donald Trump assumed office vowing to end the three-year Ukraine conflict.
It took place on the same day that Ukraine backed a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire and agreed to immediate negotiations with Russia in crunch talks in Saudi Arabia.
The last reported contacts between the heads of the CIA and SVR came in November 2022, when Naryshkin spoke with then CIA chief William Burns in Ankara.
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