White House: CIA chief visited Ukraine

The White House has confirmed that John Brennan, the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, visited Ukraine over the weekend.

“We don’t normally comment on the CIA director’s travel but given the extraordinary circumstances in this case and the false claims being leveled by the Russians at the CIA we can confirm that the director was in Kiev as part of a trip to Europe,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Monday.

“Senior level visits of intelligence officials are a standard means of fostering mutually beneficial security cooperation including US-Russian intelligence collaboration going back to the beginnings of the post-Cold War era,” he said.

Ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych accused the CIA of being behind Kiev’s decision to use force against pro-Russia protesters in the east of the country.

But the CIA denies that Brennan encouraged Ukrainian authorities to conduct tactical operations against the protesters and warned that Russia would face more “costs” for its interventions in Ukraine.

“US and Russian intelligence officials have met over the years. To imply that US officials meeting with their counterparts is anything other than in the same spirit is absurd,” Carney said.

Escalating tensions in Ukraine have caused Washington and Moscow to accuse each other of interfering in the Ukrainian affairs.

Pro-Russia rallies in the east of Ukraine have gained momentum since the Crimean territory declared independence from Ukraine last month and formally applied to become part of the Russian Federation following a referendum on March 16, in which almost 97 percent of the participants voted for rejoining Russia, with a turnout of more than 83 percent.

Russia’s integration of Crimea angered the United States and its European allies, making them to impose economic sanctions against Russian officials. The US and Europe have vowed to step up pressure on Russia.