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Russia interested in boosting cooperation based on partnership with CIA, says intel chief

It was reported that Russia was interested "in boosting mutually beneficial cooperation based on the generally accepted principles of partnership"

MOSCOW, December 15. /TASS/. Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is interested in further boosting mutually beneficial cooperation with the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), SVR chief Sergey Naryshkin said in an interview with the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper, commenting on his meeting in Moscow with CIA Director William Burns.

"As of today, I know just a few intelligence agencies that have openly declared their unwillingness to communicate with us. As for important foreign intelligence agencies, we continue cooperation with them. The CIA in the United States is one of those with whom we maintain interaction on issues related to the fight against international terrorism and exchange views on pressing problems," he pointed out.

According to the SVR director, at his recent meeting with his US counterpart Burns, he emphasized that Russia was interested "in boosting mutually beneficial cooperation based on the generally accepted principles of partnership," which, in Naryshkin’s words, include equality, privacy and respect for unwritten ethical standards of the global intelligence community. "I respect all intel professionals who seek to make our world safer and don’t consider harming Russia to be their life’s goal," he added.

The in-person meeting between Naryshkin and Burns, appointed as CIA chief earlier in the year, took place in Moscow on November 2. The agenda of the talks covered issues concerning inter-agency cooperation amid the current situation in Russia-US relations, with a focus on the war against global terrorism.

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