• Russia's intelligence agency said its chief spoke to his CIA counterpart on Tuesday.
• It's a marked shift in posture and is the first reported contact between the pair in over two years.
• It comes as a US-proposed cease-fire deal between Russia and Ukraine is on the table.

Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service said that its chief had spoken to the head of the CIA, in the first reported contact between the pair in over two years.

In the Tuesday call, it said the two agency chiefs agreed to maintain regular contact in the future, a marked shift in relations that comes at a time when a cease-fire deal with Ukraine is on the table.

It came the same day that Ukraine signaled that it was ready to accept a US proposal for an immediate 30-day cease-fire deal with Russia.

Emily Ferris, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, told BI that the call was "significant," as the two senior leaders had not spoken in several years.

According to the Russian intelligence agency, known as the SVR, its director, Sergey Naryshkin, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe spoke about how they could interact on matters of common interest and the resolution of crisis situations.

The CIA did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Tulsi Gabbard — who has shared anti-Ukraine talking points in the past — was confirmed as President Donald Trump's Director of National Intelligence last month, a rule that oversees multiple intelligence agencies, including the CIA.

The latest move comes amid a general rapprochement between Trump and Russia, while relations between the US and its traditional allies in Europe have soured.

The US temporarily paused all US intelligence-sharing with Ukraine last week, but reversed that on Tuesday.

Ferris told BI that the US may be using the calls with Russia as a "carrot" in negotiations.

"Russia's desire to be regarded on an equal footing with other countries it considers to be major powers, particularly the US and China, often drives its foreign policy decision-making," she said.

But she added that the link "could be severed at any time, especially should Russia delay on a decision about the cease-fire."

Edward Hunter Christie, a senior research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, told BI that "America is deliberately opening itself to being influenced by official Russian voices."

"Russia will exploit this," he added.

Christie said that the announcement of resumed contact between the SVR and CIA "is the further confirmation of the Trump administration's openly stated intention to have a completely new relationship with Russia, based on collaboration and coordination between the two states on what they can agree on."