Washington (CNN) – CIA Director Mike Pompeo recently met with his Russian counterparts when they traveled to the US, according to US ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman.
Russian media is reporting those who met with Pompeo may have included the country’s sanctioned spy chief, Sergey Naryshkin.
Talks between top US and Russian intelligence officials occurred just days before Pompeo once again warned that Russia will attempt to meddle in the 2018 US midterm elections and the Trump administration released a sweeping list of prominent Russian political and business figures in defiance of Moscow.
While neither US nor Russian officials explicitly said that Pompeo and Naryshkin met, both sides confirmed that talks occurred between intelligence counterparts and Russia’s US ambassador, Anatoly Antonov, said that Naryshkin made a trip to the US for discussions.
Speaking on the Russia 1 TV channel, Antonov said that even during the “hardest times,” contacts between the special services have continued.
“Politics is politics, work is work. There are political proclamations, there is real work,” he said. “You probably remember that Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] called Donald Trump and thanked him for help, for the information that was received through the line with the CIA, and thanks to that [we] were able to prevent a horrible act of terrorism in St Petersburg.”
Naryshkin was sanctioned in 2014 by the Obama administration in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine, and his meeting with Pompeo came just days before he was named in a report released by the US Treasury Department dubbed the “Putin list.”
“I think this conversation was necessary and very useful. I am sure of it. And of course I’m not going to deceive you — Sergey Evgenyevich [Naryshkin] was here. He came. He held consultations with his colleagues,” Antonov said.
Huntsman also said in an interview with the Echo Moscow radio station on Tuesday that Pompeo met with Russian intelligence officials last week, but he did not specifically name Naryshkin.
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CIA Director Mike Pompeo recently met with top Russian spies when they traveled to the US, according to the US ambassador to Russia https://t.co/rtfybXGWRt
— CNN (@CNN) January 31, 2018
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