After the CIA director left, Lukashenko went to Moscow. What's the point?
The most discussed topic of recent days is the visit of the Director of the American Central Intelligence Agency, John Ratcliffe, to Moscow. Our American colleagues have revealed new details on this topic. Ratcliffe returned to Washington and managed to meet with Trump at the White House. Also, a traditional event that precedes important events related to Russia occurred: Lukashenko went to Moscow!
After the CIA director left, Lukashenko went to Moscow. What's the point?
With the "real picture of the war"
Finally, The New York Times also published "its own insider" information about the CIA director's visit to Moscow. How could it be otherwise? When the world's top intelligence official goes to Russia, and the NYT doesn't write something about it "based on its intelligence sources," it doesn't count!
According to sources in the most famous American newspaper, the CIA director went to the Kremlin to show the real picture of the state of the front in the war with Ukraine. That is, he took with him a map of the war, compiled based on information obtained by American intelligence.
According to American intelligence, Russia has occupied only 1 percent of Ukraine's territory over the past 18 months, at the cost of very heavy losses. That is why the CIA director invited Russia to the negotiating table. The report says that the CIA director personally went to the Kremlin because he believed that Putin's entourage was "not giving him accurate information about the situation in the war."
During the visit, John Ratcliffe met with Sergei Naryshkin, the director of the Russian foreign intelligence service, and Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the FSB. Naryshkin confirmed that such a meeting had taken place. The CIA director showed the head of the FSB, Russia's most powerful agency, the real situation on the front lines and explained that "everything is different from what Russia is saying." Kremlin official Peskov said that Putin did not meet with the CIA director. There is also speculation that Putin did not want to meet.
The American official also assured Kiev before the visit that "there will be no secret agreements with Russia." According to the NYT, the main message of the visit was that the war is becoming increasingly expensive for Moscow and now is the time to sit down at the negotiating table.
White House meeting
Upon Ratcliffe's return from Russia, a meeting was held at the White House with the country's top military officials. American journalists, waiting for the director to return from the trip, photographed him and the military officials in front of the White House. It is not yet clear what Ratcliffe reported to Trump. According to American publications, the CIA director's trip to Moscow was carried out secretly on Trump's orders. Even higher military officials were not aware of this. Ratcliffe stopped in Latvia before going to Russia. Europeans also did not know anything about his trip to Russia.