The newspaper quoted US officials And allies say Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s top national security aide, has held secret talks in recent months with his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev, the Russian Security Council’s secretary, and Yury Ushakov, a Russian aide to the Russian president, which were not disclosed..
The White House declined to comment on the report.
The reported talks took place as the West accused Moscow of intensifying nuclear rhetoric, the latest of which was repeatedly accusing Kyiv of plotting to use a radioactive “dirty bomb”, without providing evidence..
Sullivan traveled to Kyiv on Friday and pledged Washington’s “steadfast and strong” support for Ukraine.
Who is Patrushev? The second man in Russia:
- Born in 1951 in Saint Petersburg, to a Soviet Navy officer who was also a member of the Soviet Communist Party.
- He graduated from the St. Petersburg Shipping Institute in 1974, and initially worked as an engineer in the Institute’s Shipbuilding Design Bureau, but soon left it in 1975, after being recruited by Soviet intelligence..
- He attended intelligence and security classes at the KGB teacher in Minsk, and later at the KGB secondary school in Moscow.
- After graduating, he worked as a KGB security officer in the city of Leningrad, and eventually was promoted to head the anti-smuggling and anti-corruption unit of the local KGB..
- He served as director of the Federal Security Service, the main successor organization of Soviet intelligence, from 1999 to 2008, succeeding Vladimir Putin..
- Since 2008 Patrushev has held the post of Secretary of the Russian Security Council, a presidential advisory body on presidential decisions on national security matters..
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