MOSCOW, August 28. /TASS/. US CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow underscored the importance of maintaining dialogue between the two countries despite persistent contradictions and mutual mistrust, Ruslan Pankratov, a member of the Officers of Russia expert council, told TASS.

"Negotiations between Moscow and Washington do not eliminate conflicts, contradictions or mutual mistrust. They simply serve as a reminder of a basic fact: serious countries sometimes talk even to those with whom they find it particularly unpleasant to talk," said Pankratov, deputy chairman of the Union of European Political Emigrants and a former member of the Riga City Council.

In his view, countries that remain outside such a dialogue can only "keep a close eye on the matter so that the event doesn’t pass them by without their obligatory comment."

Pankratov included the Baltic states among those countries, saying they "have been demanding from the collective West for years cruelty, a denial of contacts and a perpetual geopolitical freeze for Russia."

"But when Washington decides to see whether it can at least half-open the door to the negotiating room, it turns out that the freezer is only good as long as it doesn’t contain one’s own political significance," Pankratov emphasized.

Ratcliffe visited Moscow on August 25. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the visit was related to contacts between the intelligence agencies of the two countries. Sergey Naryshkin, director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), confirmed that he had met with Ratcliffe during the CIA director’s visit to Moscow.