US President Donald Trump called the recent talks of CIA Director John Ratcliffe in Moscow a regular working contact of the special services and stressed that the head of the department had not sent any special messages to the Russian side.
"Ratcliffe sees his Russian counterpart (the head of the SVR of Russia, Sergei Naryshkin) every six months or once a year. They have a very good relationship. No message was transmitted, and there was nothing unusual about it," Trump stated.
Ratcliffe visited Moscow on August 25. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the visit was connected with contacts between the special services, and Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed about the meetings.
As Naryshkin himself later told reporters, during the talks with the director of the CIA, topics within the competence of intelligence agencies were discussed. The director of the SVR added that the working dialogue is permanent: he contacts the heads of foreign intelligence services online or during face-to-face meetings almost every week.