On July 13, 2023, during the program of the pro-Kremlin “Obieqtivi TV,” Davit Kartvelishvili, a member of the “People’s Power” movement, spoke about one of the articles of Newsweek. According to Kartvelishvili, the outlet published rather scandalous materials, according to which in November 2021, the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, held a meeting with his Russian colleague, Sergey Naryshkin, where they discussed the exact date of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the red lines and the road map they should act on, so that the interests of both countries – Russia and the US – would be taken into account. According to Kartvelishvili, the mentioned article turns the narratives related to Russia upside down, because it argues that the main task of the US at this stage is not to allow the escalation of the conflict, so that there is no direct clash between NATO and Russia. A member of “People Power” also notes that the author of the Newsweek article hopes that if Donald Trump returns to the office of the president, he will make the details of this secret agreement public. An excerpt of the program was distributed on the Facebook page of “People’s Power.”
The claims about the Newsweek article are being disseminated manipulatively, while some of the assertions voiced by Kartvelishvili are false. According to the article, the reason behind Burns’ visit to Moscow was to convince the Russian leadership not to invade Ukraine, and although that goal failed, the visit was still fruitful as the two sides learned about each other’s red lines. The article does not say that the parties discussed the possible date of the invasion of Ukraine during the meeting. In addition, the claim that the author of the article hoped that Donald Trump would make the details of the secret agreement public if he is re-elected as president is also false.
The article that Davit Kartvelishvili refers to was published on July 5, and it concerns the role of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the Russia-Ukraine war.
According to the article, before the war, the CIA had been monitoring Russia’s mobilization, and in November 2021, three months before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Joe Biden sent CIA Director William Burns to Moscow.
According to Kartvelishvili, Burns met with Naryshkin, and they discussed the details of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including the date of the invasion and the red lines that the parties would not cross. This assertion of Kartvelishvili creates the impression that the two sides were planning the conflict together, or at least the US knew the details of when and how the invasion of Ukraine would take place.
In the Newsweek article describing Burns’ visit to Moscow, Naryshkin is not mentioned at all, saying that Burns spoke to Vladimir Putin on the phone, who was in Sochi at the time. The purpose of Burns’ visit, according to the article, was to warn Russia of the consequences of any attack. Also, there is no information in the article that the possible date of the invasion of Ukraine was discussed during Burns’ visit.
The article also contains the opinions of former and active intelligence officers. According to one of them, despite the fact that Russia still invaded Ukraine, the meeting turned out to be fruitful because the parties were able to “accept tried and true rules of the road”. For the United States, this meant refraining from direct involvement in the conflict, and for Russia, it meant extending the attack only to the territory of Ukraine and following the unnamed but well-understood principles of covert operations.
These principles are mentioned several times in the article. According to one of the senior intelligence officials, there is a secret war and secret rules, Washington and Moscow have decades of experience in developing these secret rules, and this process includes the involvement of the CIA, which plays the role of spy, negotiator, source of information and other roles, and most significantly, tries not to go beyond the existing framework and get out of control. The article also mentions that this secret layer is also present in the conflict in Ukraine, and the senior intelligence official considers Burns’ visit to Moscow to be successful precisely because these rules became clear to the parties, and they still follow them.
Accordingly, Davit Kartvelishvili’s assertion that, according to the Newsweek article, William Burns came to Moscow to discuss the details of the invasion of Ukraine is manipulative.
In addition, it is false to claim that the author of the article hopes that Donald Trump will make the details of the secret agreement public if he returns to the White House. According to the author of the article, Trump had a bad relationship with the intelligence chiefs during his presidency, and having a significant role in the Ukraine conflict had a positive effect on the morale of the CIA.
Burns’ visit to Moscow was covered as early as November 2021, and at that time, well-known publications named Russia’s military mobilization near the border of Ukraine as the reason behind the visit and that Burns’ goal was to convince Russian high-ranking officials not to start military operations against Ukraine.
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