CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Russia’s spy chief hold phone call, first such contact in more than 2 years

The heads of U.S. and Russian spy agencies have have spoken by phone and agreed to keep up regular contacts to lower the temperature in U.S.-Russia relations, news reports said Wednesday.

In the first such contact in more than two years, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and the head of SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, spoke by phone Tuesday, Russian state news agency TASS said.

Ratcliffe and Sergei Naryshkin “agreed on regular contact” between their agencies “in order to contribute to the international stability and security, as well as a decrease in confrontation in relations between Moscow and Washington,” TASS reported.

The call was also the first such contact since President Trump began his second term vowing to end the three-year Ukraine war.

It took place on the same day that Ukraine backed a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire and agreed to immediate negotiations with Russia to take place in Saudi Arabia.

The last reported contacts between the heads of the CIA and SVR came in November 2022, when Naryshkin spoke with then CIA chief William Burns in Ankara, Turkey.