FBI Director Kash Patel is planning a trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg in mid-October, Politico reported on Monday, citing a U.S. official and a person familiar with the travel arrangements.
The precise agenda for Patel’s expected visit, which would mark the first trip by a sitting FBI director to Russia since 2013, remains undisclosed. Russia’s FSB security service is likely to host the director, the U.S. official said.
It is not yet known whether Patel will meet with President Vladimir Putin or any senior Kremlin aides.
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to confirm or deny the trip, telling reporters during a daily briefing that “these kinds of visits usually happen behind closed doors.”
If confirmed, Patel’s trip would build on a broader series of high-level engagements between Kremlin and Trump administration officials aimed at improving bilateral relations and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner have visited Russia multiple times as part of Ukraine peace talks.
The report about Patel’s expected visit comes shortly after Russian state media framed the appearance by Trump’s White House ballroom commissioner at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum last month as evidence of a diplomatic “pivot toward Russia.”
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