White House confirms CIA Director visited Kiev over the weekend
14 April 2014, 21:32 -- The White House confirmed that the CIA chief John Brennan visited Kiev last weekend, where he held a series of secret meetings with the current leaders of Ukraine, Reuters reports.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that the CIA director was in Kiev as part of a trip to Europe.
'Senior level visits of intelligence officials are a standard means of fostering mutually beneficial security cooperation including US-Russian intelligence collaboration going back to the beginnings of the post-Cold War era,' Carney said.
'US and Russian intelligence officials have met over the years. To imply that US officials meeting with their counterparts is anything other than in the same spirit is absurd,' he said.
Russia wants explanation of report CIA chief visited Kiev
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday said Moscow would like Washington to explain reports in the Russian media that CIA director John Brennan visited the Ukrainian capital at the weekend.
'We would like to understand the meaning of reports about an urgent visit of CIA director Mr Brennan to Kiev,' Lavrov told reporters in Moscow. 'So far we have not been given any explanations that would be reasonable.'
CIA refuses to comment on Brennan's visit to Ukraine
The US Central Intelligence Agency has claimed reports that CIA Director John Brennan had influenced the Ukrainian authorities' decision to launch a special operation in eastern Ukraine, The Los Angeles Times reports with reference to a CIA official, Todd Ebitz. Ebitz chose not to comment on reports that Brennan had visited Kiev.
The report was posted on the daily's website overnight into Sunday. The daily quotes him as saying that all statements about the Ukrainian authorities' invitation to Brennan to come and advise on some tactical matters inside Ukraine is an outright lie, since Director Brennan strongly believes that a diplomatic solution is the only way to settle the crisis in Russia-Ukraine relations.
Victor Yanukovych, who is the legitimate President of Ukraine, said earlier that Ukraine's power-wielding agencies took the decision on a special operation in the east of Ukraine following their meeting with Brennan.
A source, close to Ukraine's security agencies, told RIA-Novosti that Brennan came to Kiev on Saturday to meet the power agency chiefs before the Interior Ministry in Kiev announced the launching of a special operation against those pressing for federalization in the east of Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday said Moscow would like Washington to explain reports in the Russian media that CIA director John Brennan visited the Ukrainian capital at the weekend.
'We would like to understand the meaning of reports about an urgent visit of CIA director Mr Brennan to Kiev,' Lavrov told reporters in Moscow. 'So far we have not been given any explanations that would be reasonable.'
CIA's head has come to Ukraine to instruct power agencies - unofficial source
A source in the Ukrainian parliament has told the Russian Interfax news agency that CIA's Director John Brennan has recently visited Ukraine's capital Kiev and had several meetings with representatives of Ukraine's power-wielding agencies.
The person who said this to Interfax in a phone talk added that John Brennan came to Ukraine not under his real name.
According to some yet unconfirmed information, the decision to suppress protesters in Slavyansk, a city in Ukraine's east, with force was advised to Ukraine's authorities by Brennan.
However, Interfax does not have any confirmation from any official sources that this is really so.
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