The Russian Security Council announced yesterday that its Secretary Nikolay Patrushev met with CIA Director Nicholas Burns, who is in Moscow for two days of meetings with Russian officials. “The sides discussed Russia-U.S. relations,” the council said in a news release, reported TASS. Patrushev has talked to U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan six times by phone, but this is the first time he has met with Burns since Biden has been President.
“CIA Director William Burns, at the President’s request, is leading a delegation of senior U.S. officials to Moscow on Nov. 2 and 3. They are meeting with members of the Russian government to discuss a range of issues in the bilateral relationship,” an official of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow told TASS. RT’s coverage suggests that Burns has been tasked to pick up the pieces after the fiasco of Victoria Nuland’s Nov. 2-3 visit to Moscow. “Nuland’s fruitless visit was followed by the breaking of ties between Russia and NATO,” RT wrote. “In October, the U.S.-led bloc expelled eight Russian diplomats from its Brussels headquarters.”
