US, Russian spy chiefs meet in Turkey

Washington/Moscow, Nov 15

The intelligence chiefs of the US and Russia held an in-person meeting in the Turkish capital of Ankara, marking the highest-level public meeting between officials of the two nations since Moscow waged its ongoing war against Ukraine in February, the White House and Kremlin have confirmed.

Monday's meeting between Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns and his Russian counterpart Sergey Naryshkin, chief of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), took place "at the initiative of the US", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Moscow's state-run TASS News Agency.

"Such negotiations did, indeed, take place. They were initiated by the US side," he added.

Peskov however, did not disclose the subject matter of the talks.

In its statement, the White House said that Burns was not "conducting negotiations of any kind", adding that the US would "stick firmly to our fundamental principle: nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine".

The CIA chief's message was "on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia", and the risk of "escalation to strategic stability", the BBC quoted the statement as saying.

The White House also said the officials were discussing the issue of American citizens detained "unjustly" in Russia.

Also confirming that the meeting took place, Fahrettin Altun, head of media and communications in the Turkish presidency, told local media that "discussions were held with respect to threats to international security, including those related to the possible use of nuclear weapons", TASS News Agency reported.

According to Altun, Turkey "will continue negotiations with all parties to achieve peace".