FBI Director Kash Patel is reportedly preparing for a rare trip into the heart of Russia — one that could put America’s top federal lawman across the table from the successor to the Soviet-era KGB.
Patel is expected to visit Moscow and St. Petersburg on Oct. 14 and 15, according to a U.S. official and another person familiar with the plans who spoke with Politico.
“His host is likely to be the FSB, the Russian security service that is heir to the Soviet-era KGB,” the U.S. official told the outlet.
The purpose of the trip has not been disclosed, and it remains unclear which Russian officials Patel intends to meet. There has also been no indication whether a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is under consideration.
The FBI and Justice Department did not respond to Politico’s requests for comment, while the White House referred questions about the trip to the bureau.
The Kremlin did little to clear up the mystery Tuesday.
“These kinds of visits usually happen behind closed doors,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters while declining to confirm or deny Patel’s travel plans, according to The Moscow Times.
The reported visit would carry particularly high stakes because Patel could be meeting with the same security service his bureau has publicly identified as an active threat to Americans.
In a June warning, the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said Russian intelligence actors were conducting an ongoing phishing campaign against high-value targets. The agencies said FSB officers and others working for Russian military services were targeting current and former U.S. government officials, military personnel, political figures and journalists.
The campaign allowed Russian operatives to take over messaging accounts and potentially access victims’ private conversations, according to the FBI and CISA advisory.
That creates a striking backdrop for Patel’s expected talks: The FBI may need Russian cooperation on terrorism, cybercrime and other international investigations even while treating the expected host of the trip as a hostile intelligence organization.
If Patel makes the journey, he would become the first sitting FBI director known to visit Russia since Robert Mueller traveled to Moscow in 2013.
Mueller’s unannounced trip came shortly after the Boston Marathon bombing and included discussions with Russian officials about the investigation and security cooperation ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Patel’s history makes the planned visit even more politically combustible.
Before taking over the FBI, Patel rose to prominence as a House Intelligence Committee aide investigating the origins and conduct of the bureau’s Trump-Russia probe. He has repeatedly denounced the investigation into alleged collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia as the “Russiagate hoax.”
The trip is also being planned as relations between Washington and Moscow remain strained over the war in Ukraine and lawmakers push for tougher economic penalties against Putin’s government.
Trump administration envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have made repeated attempts to negotiate an end to the war, but Russia has continued to demand Ukrainian territorial concessions that Kyiv has rejected, according to The Kyiv Independent.
For now, the biggest question surrounding Patel’s journey remains unanswered: What exactly does America’s FBI director expect to accomplish behind closed doors with one of the country’s most powerful adversaries?
