The head of the French foreign Intelligence Service announced that he was in contact with Naryshkin.

French President Emmanuel Macron has asked the head of French intelligence to keep in touch with Sergei Naryshkin, director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). This was announced on July 8 by the head of the French foreign intelligence service, Nicolas Lerner, on the LCI TV channel.

"We continue to transmit the information we receive. The French president wanted me to maintain this communication channel when the diplomatic channels were closed," he said.

Lerner also said that he had the opportunity to personally talk to Naryshkin on the phone several times. One of these calls happened recently.

In the zone of approach: the number of supporters of the resumption of dialogue with the Russian Federation is growing in Europe

Why can't they move from statements to actions yet

On June 29, Head Naryshkin announced that he had held telephone conversations with the director of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States, John Ratcliffe. According to him, the parties "reserved the opportunity to discuss issues of interest at any time."