FBI Director Kash Patel is planning to visit Russia on October 14-15, 2026, stopping in Moscow and then St. Petersburg, Politico reported on July 20, citing a U.S. official and a person familiar with the plans. His host is likely to be the FSB, the Russian security service that succeeded the Soviet KGB, the official said. Robert Mueller was the last FBI director known to have visited Russia, in 2013. It was not clear whether Patel would meet Vladimir Putin or what was on his agenda; the White House referred questions to the FBI, which did not respond, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to confirm the trip.
Patel later described the purpose himself. In interviews with Reuters published August 5, he said he had built new law enforcement partnerships with China and Russia, limited to transnational crimes such as child exploitation networks and cyber scam centers, and FBI officials said a trip to Russia was tentatively planned for October. “They are both new and dynamic relationships, and we are extremely mindful of their adversarial approach on many matters,” Patel said. Jeff Crocker, a former FBI supervisory agent, told Reuters, “China and Russia are our enemies, period.”
The plan drew criticism from the right as well as the left. MAGA activist Laura Loomer wrote that the FBI director “is heading to Russia as the White House prepares to impose more sanctions on Russia, which is supplying Iran with weapons to murder U.S. soldiers.” The trip comes as Washington and Moscow remain at odds over the war in Ukraine and lawmakers press for new sanctions, and Patel has spent years calling the investigation into Trump-Russia ties the “Russiagate hoax.” Politico also noted that he faced questions over a $25,000 payment tied to a film financed by a Kremlin-linked company. In August, a Kremlin-aligned analyst told the Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets that Russia might offer “some kind of dirt on the Democrats” and could ask “What do we get in return?” (see Kash Patel Used an FBI Jet for 10+ Personal Trips Including the Milan Olympics, Where He Was Photographed With Beer in the Locker Room, FBI Director Kash Patel's Email Is Hacked by Iran, Raising Questions About the Security Practices of America's Top Law Enforcement Official and The FBI Fired Two Analysts Who Refused to Work on Patel's Investigation of Georgia's 2020 Election).
Correction (October 2, 2026): An earlier version said Patel announced the trip; it was reported by Politico from anonymous sources and later described by FBI officials as tentative. It stated as fact that Russia is supplying Iran with weapons used against U.S. troops and that the White House is preparing sanctions; those are Laura Loomer's claims and are now attributed to her, and the title no longer repeats them. It also attributed a criticism of the trip to Rep. Andy Kim; the quoted post, as reported, concerned Canada tariffs and Trump's foreign policy, and it has been removed. The date was moved from July 21 to July 20, when Politico published.