Sergei Naryshkin, the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, has said that he and his CIA counterpart William Burns had a discussion over a phone call last month, after the Wagner mutiny, according to the state-run TASS news agency.
According to reports by The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, on June 30, the CIA chief called Naryshkin to assure that the United States had no role in the failed mutiny a week earlier by the Russian mercenary group Wagner.
Naryshkin told TASS that Burns had raised "the events of June 24", when Wagner mercenaries led by Yevgeny Prigozhin took control of a southern Russian city and advanced towards Moscow.
As per Naryshkin, their conversation was mainly focused on Ukraine.
“I think it was more of a pretext because the main part of the conversation was focused on discussing issues and events related to Ukraine,” he said.
“We were thinking, discussing what to do about Ukraine,” Naryshkin added, describing the hour-long conversation with Burns.
The New York Times reported that the CIA declined to comment on Naryshkin's remarks.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the relations between US and Russia are at their lowest. Even though, the two spy chiefs have tried to maintain a communication channel between the countries.
Last November, the two Intelligence agency chiefs met in Turkey for talks, which Washington denied were "negotiations of any kind" on resolving the Ukraine conflict.
During his conversation with TASS, Naryshkin said that negotiations on the war would become possible at some point.
“It’s natural that negotiations will be possible sooner or later, because any conflict, including armed conflict, ends by negotiations, but the conditions for these still need to ripen,” he said.
Later, when asked about the report, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters: “Today, someone like Naryshkin has no leverage over how this war will end.”
He said Russia was losing the war and there could be no negotiations with people like Naryshkin.
In the report, Naryshkin mentioned a possible second face-to-face meeting with Burns.