Russian, US spy chiefs hold rare talks
The US and Russian spy chiefs held a rare face-to-face meeting in Ankara Monday on Moscow's nuclear threats in Ukraine and Americans held prisoner by the Kremlin, the White House said. In what appeared to be the highest-level direct talks between officials of the two countries since Russia attacked Ukraine in February, Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns met with Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman confirmed the meeting, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said it came as "an initiative of the American side," according to Russian media. Peskov declined to provide details on the contents. But the White House said Burns, formerly Washington's ambassador in Moscow, was delivering a warning against Russia's threat to make use of tactical nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war. The CIA chief's message was "on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia, and the risks of escalation to strategic stability," according to a White House statement. The United States has warned for months over Russian threats to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine if its own territorial integrity was threatened. On September 21, Putin said Western nations were seeking to "destroy" his country, and made what was widely taken as a threat to employ nuclear weapons. (AFP)