Russia's Naryshkin Retains Positive Assessment Of Meeting With CIA Director In Ankara

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th February, 2023) Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergei Naryshkin said on Monday he retains a positive assessment of the nature and results of his meeting with US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief William Burns in Turkey, despite the CIA head's negative comments about their conversation.

On Sunday, Burns said in an interview with CBS news that Naryshkin's behavior during their talks in Ankara in November 2022 was "defiant" and called the meeting "pretty dispiriting."

"I still maintain a positive assessment of the nature and results of the meeting with my colleague William Burns," Naryshkin told reporters, adding that the meeting in Ankara had been meaningful and had taken place in a "very comfortable environment."

The SVR chief also said he maintained great respect for Burns "as for a very experienced, skillful diplomat, and as for a colleague with maybe not yet very much experience as CIA director.

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Naryshkin recalled that the meeting in Ankara had taken two and a half times and suggested that it would not have lasted so long if one of the parties had behaved rudely or arrogantly.

"I repeat, it was a very good and calm conversation. Well, why have such assessments come from my respected colleague? Perhaps, because of the realization that I relied not so much on my own opinion, but on the opinion of the multimillion Russian people during the talks," Naryshkin said.

Naryshkin met with Burns on November 14, 2022 in Ankara. After the conversation, the SVR director confirmed in an interview with Sputnik that he had met with his US counterpart to discuss nuclear safety and the Ukraine conflict. In mid-January 2023, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the meeting had taken place at the request of US President Joe Biden to Russian President Vladimir Putin.