Putin escalates Ukraine strikes after CIA director’s Moscow visit

CIA Director John Ratcliffe flew to Moscow on August 25 for an unannounced, eight-hour visit, the first by a CIA chief under President Trump. He left without meeting Vladimir Putin. What followed was not a diplomatic thaw but a fresh wave of Russian strikes on Ukrainian targets, suggesting the visit may have done more to harden the Kremlin’s resolve than to soften it. What Ratcliffe walked into Ratcliffe’s counterparts in Moscow were FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov and SVR head Sergei Naryshkin, two of Russia’s most senior intelligence figures. The absence of Putin from the meeting roster was itself a signal: the Kremlin chose to keep the conversation at the intelligence-to-intelligence level rather than elevating it to a political one. The agenda, according to reporting from the Washington Post, centered on three priorities. First, warning Moscow against further military provocations toward NATO allies, with specific concern about the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Second, pushing Russia to scale back its support for Iran. Third, delivering what was described as a frank assessment of Russia’s own military position in Ukraine. Washington reportedly asked Kyiv to ...