Moscow proposed a quid pro quo to Washington: Russia would stop sharing intelligence with Iran if the United States stopped supplying Ukraine with intelligence on Russia, according to Politico.
Citing two people familiar with the negotiations, Politico reported that Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev made the proposal to Trump administration envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during a meeting in Miami last week. The U.S. rejected the proposal, the report said.
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According to Politico, the Russian offer included halting intelligence sharing with Iran on sensitive matters such as the precise coordinates of U.S. military assets in the Middle East in exchange for Washington cutting off intelligence support to Kyiv.
Dmitriev later denied the report, calling it “fake” in a post on X.
The Kremlin also dismissed the Politico story, casting it as “Western disinformation” aimed at driving a wedge between Moscow and its Middle Eastern allies.
Ratcliffe publicly rejects Putin’s word
During the Senate Intelligence Committee’s annual Worldwide Threats hearing on Wednesday, CIA Director John Ratcliffe was asked whether he accepted Putin’s assurance that Russia was not supplying intelligence to Iran. “No, I don’t take Vladimir Putin at his word,” Ratcliffe replied.
Ratcliffe added that Iran was seeking intelligence assistance from Russia, China and other U.S. adversaries, but said any discussion of what support was actually being provided belonged in a classified session.
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New warnings over Russia-Iran links
President Volodymyr Zelensky also accused Moscow and Tehran of deepening military cooperation.
“The regimes in Russia and Iran are brothers in hatred, and that is why they are brothers in weapons,” Zelensky said in an interview with CNN.
He added that Ukraine had “100% facts” that the Iranian regime had used drones containing Russian components against American bases.
Russia remains a close ally of Iran, and the two countries agreed last year to help each other counter what they called “common threats.”
U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen said Russia’s growing support for Iran should not be ignored. The New Hampshire Democrat said Iranian Shahed drones had already killed American troops in Kuwait, while hotels used by Americans in Dubai, as well as U.S. military, intelligence and diplomatic sites across the Middle East, had also been attacked.
“Given Moscow’s growing role in supporting Tehran, it is hard to escape the conclusion that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intelligence agencies had a hand in planning these strikes,” Shaheen wrote. “When Americans are targeted abroad, the United States must respond with clarity and resolve.”
Analysts reject Moscow’s framing
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer said Moscow would likely try to equate Russia’s intelligence support for Iran with U.S. intelligence support for Ukraine, but argued the two were neither morally nor strategically equivalent. “U.S. support for Ukraine should continue,” he told Kyiv Post.
Analyst Paul Goble told Kyiv Post that the Kremlin was using the Iran war to “suggest a false equivalency.”
He warned that the consequences could directly affect Ukraine, as Iranian officials now view Kyiv as a “legitimate target” after it offered anti-drone technology to counter Iranian-made drones.