Officials in Moscow will pursue further prisoner swap talks with the United States following an exchange previously today, the head of Russias Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) toldstate media Friday.Dialogue with the new U.S.
administration will certainly continue in different areas, including the problem you pointed out, SVR Director Sergei Naryshkin informed press reporters when asked about the possibility of future exchanges.On Thursday, Russia launched U.S.-Russian dual national Ksenia Karelina in exchange for Arthur Petrov, a German-Russian dual nationalarrestedin Cyprus in 2023 at the request of U.S.
authorities for apparently exporting sensitive U.S.-made microelectronics to Russia.The CIA played a central role in brokeringThursdaysexchange, according to the Wall Street Journal, which initially broke the story.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe was said to have carried out settlements with FSB headAlexander Bortnikovand existed at the Abu Dhabi airport for the handover.Ratcliffe had actually supposedly spoken multiple times with Naryshkin since ending up being CIA director under the Trump administration, WSJ reported.Naryshkins talk about Friday came asU.S.
President Donald Trumps special envoy Steve Witkoff showed up in Russia for reported talks with President Vladimir Putin.In February, Witkoff was associated with negotiations toreleaseMarc Fogel, an American teacher imprisoned in Russia on drug charges, in return for Russian cryptocurrency figure Alexander Vinnik.The Trump administration hailed the release of Fogel as a positive action for diplomacy.