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The director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergey Naryshkin said today that another meeting with CIA Director William Burns is possible, TASS reported, quoted by BTA.

The last meeting between the two took place in Ankara in November last year, Reuters notes.

U.S. officials said at the time that Burns warned Naryshkin of the consequences if any nuclear weapons were used in the Ukraine war and raised the issue of Americans in Russian prisons.

Asked if there could be another such meeting, Naryshkin told TASS: "It is possible."

He said that the meeting with Burns was fruitful and allowed Russia to clarify its position, TASS reported.

Burns is a former US ambassador to Russia.

In late 2021, he was sent to Moscow by US President Joe Biden to express to Russian President Vladimir Putin US concerns about the build-up of Russian troops along the border with Ukraine.

Naryshkin said Russia has built "unprecedented" cooperation with China, including the exchange of a large volume of operational and other intelligence data, TASS reported.

He said Russia had also built close intelligence ties with its ally Iran, adding: "Some intelligence services are our partners."

Naryshkin noted that he occasionally talks with some unnamed heads of European intelligence services about the situation in Ukraine, TASS reports.

The Kremlin said today that any possible meeting between Naryshkin and Burns would "make sense", according to Reuters.

CIA director meetings in Kyiv

"We cannot rule out such a thing, and of course such a dialogue makes sense," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

However, he specified that he did not know anything about a specific date for such a meeting.

The Kremlin has declined requests for comment on Ukrainian intelligence's claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the chief of the general staff and commander of the Joint Group of Forces in the special military operation zone, Valery Gerasimov, to retake Donbas by March 2023.

"No, I couldn't (comment) and I don't have the slightest desire," Peskov said.

The CIA

Russian intelligence

Sergey Naryshkin

William Burns