Russian sources have said that John Ratcliffe, director of the CIA, met with Russian intelligence and security officials during his visit to Moscow, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin was briefed on the meetings.
The TASS news agency reported on Wednesday, August 26, that Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, made the remarks.
According to the report, Peskov said there had been no direct meeting or contact between Vladimir Putin and the CIA director.
He did not explain why the CIA director had not met with the Russian president during his visit to Moscow.
The Kremlin spokesperson added that Putin had been briefed on the results of the meetings between Russian intelligence agencies and the CIA director.
He said: “I can tell you that there was no meeting with the Russian president. That is all I can tell you about this. I can only tell you that the contacts took place through the intelligence services.”
This comes as relations between Washington and Moscow have remained tense over the war in Ukraine for the past four years.
