MOSCOW (REUTERS) – CIA director William Burns is making a uncommon go to to Moscow to debate US-Russia relations, the most recent in a sequence of high-level contacts that present each side wish to hold speaking regardless of mutual mistrust and an extended record of disputes.
A US Embassy spokesman stated Burns was main a delegation of senior US officers to Moscow on Tuesday and Wednesday at President Joe Biden’s request.
“They’re assembly with members of the Russian authorities to debate a variety of points within the bilateral relationship,” the spokesman stated.
Russia’s Safety Council stated Burns, a Russian-speaker and former ambassador to Moscow, held talks with Nikolai Patrushev, the council’s secretary and a former head of Russia’s FSB intelligence service.
Neither facet gave particulars of the dialog, however safety points loom giant of their troubled relationship.
Ties have hit a sequence of post-Chilly Struggle lows over points together with Russian-based cyberattacks in opposition to US targets, Moscow’s help for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the jailing of opposition politician Alexei Navalny and Russia’s behaviour in the direction of Ukraine, from which it seized the Crimea peninsula in 2014.
Biden despatched a prime Russia knowledgeable, Beneath Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, to Moscow for talks final month that didn’t yield any progress in a dispute between the 2 international locations over the sizes of their respective embassies.
Biden met Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Geneva in June, and stated on the time it might take six months to a 12 months to search out out whether or not the 2 international locations may set up a significant strategic dialogue.
Putin incessantly criticises america however stated final month he had established a constructive relationship with Biden.
The Kremlin has stated an extra assembly between the 2 this 12 months is a practical chance.