politics
FBI Director Kash Patel Scheduled to Visit Russia in October 2026
Washington Examiner reported that Patel will travel to Moscow and St. Petersburg from October 14 to 15. His host is expected to be Russia’s Federal Security Service.
Jul 20, 6:46 PM·1m read1 source
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FBI Director Kash Patel is scheduled to travel to Russia in October 2026, with a U.S. official telling Politico that the visit will take him to Moscow and St. Petersburg from October 14 to 15 under the auspices of Russia’s Federal Security Service. It remains unclear whether Patel will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin or any senior aides, and the agenda for the trip has not been disclosed.
The planned visit occurs after the House approved an additional $1.3 billion in aid for Ukraine and new sanctions on Russia last month. Those measures defied House GOP leadership and President Donald Trump’s preferred approach to the conflict. The last FBI director to travel to Russia was Robert Mueller in 2013.
Senior Biden administration officials largely avoided such trips since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, though the U.S. Embassy in Moscow stayed open. House and Senate judiciary committee Democrats launched a bicameral investigation earlier this month into Patel’s alleged misuse of government resources.
Among the trips cited were attendance at the men’s hockey gold medal game at the Winter Olympics in Italy, snorkeling near the USS Arizona wreck at Pearl Harbor, and use of a government aircraft to attend performances by his girlfriend, a country music singer.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner have each traveled to Russia multiple times during the president’s second term, including meetings with Putin. Between Trump’s two terms, Patel authored children’s books mocking Democrats involved in that investigation and faced scrutiny over a $25,000 payment tied to a documentary financed by a Kremlin-linked production company.
