WASHINGTON: Russia’s foreign spy chief — who is under US sanctions — metlast week outside Washington with US intelligence officials, two US sourcessaid, confirming a disclosure that intensified political infighting overprobes into Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 US election.

Sergey Naryshkin — the head of the Russian service known by its acronym SVR— held talks with US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and otherUS intelligence officials, the sources said. The sources did not reveal thetopics discussed.

A Russian Embassy tweet disclosed Naryshkin’s visit.

It cited a state-run ITAR-Tass news report that quoted Anatoly Antonov —Russia’s ambassador to Washington — as telling Rossiya-1 television thatNaryshkin and his US counterparts discussed the “joint struggle againstterrorism”.

Antonov did not identify the US intelligence officials with whom he met.

The Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment. Coats’ office saidthat while it does not discuss US intelligence officials’ schedules, “anyinteraction with foreign intelligence agencies would have been conducted inaccordance with US law and in consultation with appropriate departments andagencies.”

News of Naryshkin’s secret visit poured fresh fuel on the battles pittingthe Trump administration and its Republican defenders against Democratsover investigations into Moscow’s alleged 2016 election interference.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded that the administration“immediately come clean and answer questions — which US officials did hemeet with? Did any White House or National Security Council official meetwith Naryshkin? What did they discuss?”[image: an image]Sergei Naryshkin — the speaker of the Russian Duma — on avisit to Finland, April 3, 2013. Image Courtesy: Finland Todaylink>/TonyÖhberg

The key question, Schumer told reporters, is whether Naryshkin’s visitaccounted for the administration’s decision on Monday not to slap newsanctions on Russia under a law passed last year to punish Moscow’spurported election meddling.

“Russia hacked our elections,” Schumer said. “We sanctioned the head oftheir foreign intelligence and then the Trump administration invites him towaltz through our front door.”

A January 2017 US intelligence report concluded that Russia conducted aninfluence campaign of hacking and other measures aimed at swinging the 2016presidential vote to Trump over Hillary Clinton — his Democratic challenger.

Last week, the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant reported that the Netherlandsintelligence concluded that some of the Russians running a hackingoperation — known as “Cozy Bear” — against Democratic organizations wereSVR agents.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo told the BBC in an interview last weekend that hehad not “seen a significant decrease” in Russian attempts at subversion inEurope and the US, and he expects Moscow to meddle in November’s USmid-term elections.

Congressional panels and Special Counsel Robert Mueller are investigatingRussia’s alleged interference and possible collusion between Moscow andTrump’s election campaign.

Russia denies it meddled and Trump dismissed the allegations of collusionas a political witch hunt.

Naryshkin’s visit coincided with other serious disputes in US-Russianrelations. They include Russia’s 2014 seizure of Crimea and itsinterference in Ukraine and Russia’s military intervention on thegovernment’s side in the Syrian civil war.

Washington and Moscow cooperate in some areas, including the fight againstIslamic militant groups, officials said.

For example, a month ago the United States provided advance warning toRussia that allowed it to thwart a terrorist plot in St. Petersburg, theWhite House said.

Naryshkin — who was appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to headthe SVR in September 2016 — was sanctioned by the Obama administration inMarch 2014 as part of the US response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

At the time, he was speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament.

He was banned from entering the US but sanctions experts said there areprocesses for providing people under sanction permission to enter forofficial business.

Meetings between foreign intelligence chiefs, even from rival nations, aremostly kept secret but are not unusual.