Russia's foreign intelligence chief, Sergei Naryshkin, held a phone call on Tuesday with the director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, John Ratcliffe, the Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday.

CIA Director CIA John Ratcliffe and the head of the Russian external intelligence agency SVR, Sergey Naryshkin, spoke on the phone on Tuesday, according to the state news agency TASS as quoted by Al Arabiya.

John Ratcliffe, Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, and Sergei Naryshkin, Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, held a telephone conversation on 11 March. Source: European Pravda,

The rare exchange between SVR and CIA signals a potential shift in Washington-Moscow relations.

The heads of U.S. and Russian spy agencies spoke by phone and agreed to keep up regular contacts to lower the temperature in U.S.-Russia relations, Russian news reports say.

The heads of the U.S. and Russian intelligence agencies spoke by phone and agreed to maintain regular contact in an effort to ease tensions between the two countries, Russian state media reported Wednesday.