CIA Director John Ratcliffe visits Moscow in first such trip since 2021

CIA Director John Ratcliffe flew to Moscow on August 25 for a day of talks with Russian intelligence officials, making him the first sitting CIA chief to visit the Russian capital since William Burns traveled there in November 2021. The trip, unannounced beforehand, lasted roughly seven to eight and a half hours. Ratcliffe landed, held discussions, and left the same day. How the visit unfolded Ratcliffe’s transport, a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster, departed Joint Base Andrews and made a stopover in Riga, Latvia, before touching down at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport early Tuesday morning. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Ratcliffe held discussions with Russian intelligence services during the visit. However, Peskov was explicit on one point: Ratcliffe did not meet with President Vladimir Putin. Putin was briefed on the substance of those discussions, according to the Kremlin. The visit required a notable precondition. The US requested that Ukraine pause attacks on Moscow and St. Petersburg from Monday through Wednesday to create a security window for Ratcliffe’s travel. A channel that never fully closed While the in-person visit grabbed attention, the communication line bet...