CIA director meets Russia's top spy chief for secret Ukraine talks
America and Russia’s top spy chiefs are meeting in Turkey for secret talks about the war in Ukraine.
In the first face-to-face high-level diplomatic contact between Washington and Moscow since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Bill Burns, director of the CIA, and Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia's SVR spy agency, are meeting in Ankara to discuss detained US citizens and nuclear risk.
The White House stressed that Mr Burns was “not conducting negotiations of any kind”.
Ukraine was briefed in advance of the trip, with the White House saying: “We firmly stick to our fundamental principle: nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”
A National Security Council spokesman said: “He is not discussing settlement of the war in Ukraine.
“He is conveying a message on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia, and the risks of escalation to strategic stability. He will also raise the cases of unjustly detained US citizens.”
There have not been any high-level public conversations between the US and Russia since Sergei Lavrov, the Kremlin's foreign minister; and Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, met in Geneva in January, a month before the invasion of Ukraine.
Joe Biden sent Mr Burns to Moscow in November last year to try to dissuade Vladimir Putin from going ahead with his planned invasion of Ukraine.
The White House said: “We have been very open about the fact that we have channels to communicate with Russia on managing risk, especially nuclear risk and risks to strategic stability.”
The meeting comes as world leaders including Mr Biden and China's Xi Jinping gather in Bali for the annual G20 summit, which opens on Tuesday.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-n...talk-us-g20-leaders-meet-discuss-ukraine-war/
-------
Clear indication NATO has lost, Ukraine has lost, and Russia has won.