CIA Director William Burns is visiting Moscow on a rare occasion to discuss US-Russian relations. This is the latest in a series of high-level contacts, showing that despite mutual mistrust and a long series of disputes, the two sides still hope to continue the dialogue.
A spokesperson for the US Embassy stated that at the request of President Biden, Burns led a delegation of senior US officials to Moscow on Tuesday and Wednesday (November 2 to 3).
The spokesperson said: “They are meeting with members of the Russian government to discuss a series of issues in bilateral relations.”
The Russian Security Council stated that the Russian spokesperson and former ambassador to Moscow Burns held talks with the secretary of the committee and former head of the intelligence department of the Russian Federal Security Service, Nikolai Patrushev.
Neither party revealed the details of the conversation, but security issues are particularly prominent in their troubled relationship.
Due to Russia’s cyberattacks on American targets, Moscow’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s imprisonment, and Russia’s actions in Ukraine, relations between the two sides have touched the Cold War. After a series of lows. Crimea in 2014.
Biden sent a senior Russian expert and Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Newland to Moscow for talks last month, but the two countries failed to make any progress in the dispute over the size of their embassies.
Biden met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Geneva in June. At the time, he stated that it would take six months to a year to determine whether the two countries can establish a meaningful strategic dialogue.
Putin often criticizes the United States, but said last month that he has established a constructive relationship with Biden. The Kremlin stated that a further meeting between the two this year is a realistic possibility.
