Discuss Cyber Security CIA Director Meets Top Russian Officials, Here's Their Talk

Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) William Burns, visiting Russia. (photo: twitter)

JAKARTA - Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) William Burns raised the issue of Russian cyberattacks during a rare visit to Moscow. During the visit he met with high-level security officials, three sources told Reuters.

The trip follows a summit in Geneva in June where US President Joe Biden pressured Russian President Vladimir Putin to act against ransomware groups attacking companies and infrastructure in the United States. Moscow itself has publicly agreed to track down cybercriminals.

"Cybersecurity is one of the topics," said a source close to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), adding that Burns showed evidence of the involvement of Russian hackers in the attack.

A US official familiar with intelligence activities and other Russian cybersecurity sources confirmed that hacking was one of the topics that Burns raised.

His trip is the latest in a string of high-level contacts that have shown both sides are eager to keep talking despite mutual distrust and a long list of disputes that have plunged relations to post-Cold War lows.

The CIA director, a Russian speaker and former ambassador to Moscow, held talks on Tuesday 2 November with Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council and former head of the FSB.

On Wednesday, November 3, Burns met with the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergei Naryshkin and the two discussed US-Russian cooperation in the fight against international terrorism, the Interfax news agency reported.

"Dialogue at this level and on such sensitive issues is very important for bilateral relations and for exchanging views on the issues we have," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Burns' trip coincides with developments in both countries highlighting their tensions over cybersecurity, with no progress reported since the Biden-Putin summit in June.

On Wednesday, the US Commerce Department added Russian cybersecurity firm Positive Technologies, which has been sanctioned since April, to its trade blacklist, saying it had traded in cyber tools used to gain unauthorized access to computer networks.

On Tuesday, it was Russia, which had proposed handing over cybercriminals if Washington did the same. Russian sources stated that they had made temporary detention in St. Petersburg against the former Belarusian hacker, Sergei Pavlovich, who is wanted by the United States and lives in Russia.

Pavlovich said in a YouTube video following his release that he had been detained because of an Interpol red notice and released because Russia and the United States do not have an extradition treaty. St. Police Department Petersburg declined to comment on this.