Warning to Putin or negotiations with Iran: why did the CIA head come to Moscow?
A few days ago, CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced visit to Moscow. The Kremlin explained this by saying that it was due to "contacts in the intelligence community," while Trump referred to negotiations with Ukraine.
Warning to Putin or talks with Iran: why did the CIA chief come to Moscow?
On August 25, several American publications reported that the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Ratcliffe had flown to Moscow. Although the United States itself has not officially announced this, Flightradar24 data confirmed that the American military plane landed at Moscow's Vnukovo airport and spent about nine hours there.
This is the first known visit by the head of American intelligence to the Russian capital in the last five years. Previously, in November 2021 - about three months before Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine - then-CIA director William Burns met with Putin.
The BBC summarized the hypotheses about the purpose of this visit, which ranged from "Washington's warning to drawing Russia into talks with Iran." The Americans had warned Kiev in advance about the CIA delegation's visit to Moscow, and therefore asked Ukraine to cease attacks on Moscow, St. Petersburg and northern Russia from August 24 to August 26.
On the morning of August 26, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the head of American intelligence had flown to Moscow. According to Peskov, Ratcliffe had visited Russia for "contacts between special services." Peskov also said that Ratcliffe had not met with Putin and did not provide other details of the visit.
The head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, said that he had held a "working-level meeting" with CIA Director John Ratcliffe in Moscow earlier in the week.