FBI Director Kash Patel has been given a not-so-subtle message about his purported plans for a trip to Russia as a Kremlin-friendly newspaper warns he better come bearing gifts.
Moskovsky Komsomolets, one of Russia’s most widely read newspapers, published a lengthy piece examining Patel’s expected October visit, citing a Russian political analyst closely aligned with the Kremlin.
“It’s assumed that Russia has some kind of dirt on the Democrats, and we could provide it, in one form or another, to the American side,” Vladimir Vasiliev of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Arbatov Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies told the newspaper, speculating on the possible reasons for Patel’s visit.
Vasiliev works closely with the Russian International Affairs Council, which is overseen by Vladimir Putin’s top diplomat, Sergei Lavrov, as the chairman of the board. He is widely known for spreading the Kremlin’s line in state-controlled media.
He went on to make clear that Patel better not come empty-handed if he has a favor to ask of Putin’s security services: “At the same time, the Americans might also have something to share, seeing as the Russian side could ask, ‘What do we get in return? or inquire, ‘What do you have to say about this or that issue?’”
His comments come after Politico reported that Patel is planning to travel to Russia on October 14 and 15, with stops in Moscow and St. Petersburg. His likely host would be the FSB, Russia’s powerful security service and successor to the Soviet KGB.
Such a trip would be highly unusual for an FBI director. Robert Mueller was the last known FBI chief to visit Russia, traveling there in 2013.
Patel appeared to shed more light on his relationship with Moscow this week when he discussed the FBI’s cooperation with Russian and Chinese counterparts in an interview with Reuters. He said the bureau had exchanged specialized and intelligence information with the countries’ law enforcement agencies when necessary to combat certain forms of cross-border crime.
Patel could also be positioning himself as a backchannel between Donald Trump’s administration and Moscow, potentially giving him a role beyond his traditional law enforcement responsibilities, Vasiliev said, describing it as a possible bid to win influence over Trump and secure his job as FBI director.
“What’s stopping the FBI director from acting as a mediator or, say, a liaison officer?” Vasiliev said, suggesting U.S. officials might believe Putin’s intelligence background makes the security services a particularly effective avenue for negotiations.
Patel has long been entangled in the political battles surrounding Russia. During Trump’s first term, he worked to undermine the investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia during the 2016 election, an investigation Patel has since branded the “Russiagate hoax.”
Whether Patel’s Moscow trip actually happens remains uncertain. The Kremlin was tight-lipped about the trip when asked by reporters to comment on it late last month, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov simply saying he had no information about it.
“Two months is a long time, with a lot of things possible,” Vasiliev said. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”
