CIA chief John Ratcliffe in secret mission to Moscow amid ‘crisis’ ties

Aug. 26 (UPI) — CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a unannounced stop in Moscow for around eight-and-a-half hours with flight tracking data showing a U.S. government transport aircraft making a return flight to the Russian capital, via Latvia, from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

The trip by chief of the United States’ top spy agency was confirmed by U.S. sources who told The Washington Post, CBS News and CNN that Ratcliffe held talks with Russian counterparts on Tuesday — but declined to provide further details.

Neither the CIA, Defense Department, Air Force or White House would comment but The Washington Post said it had geolocated footage of a motorcade circulating on the Internet to central Moscow’s New Arbat Avenue.

It said the vehicles were moving eastwards near offices belonging to the Russian military and that they had red diplomatic license plates.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Ratcliffe held a “positive” meeting with Russian intelligence officials during his visit amid what what he called a “deep crisis” in the relationship between the United States and Russua amid the ongoing hositlities with Ukraine.

He said Ratcliffe did not meet with President Vladimir Putin but that he was briefed on the meetings, saying it remained to be seen if the contact would improve ties.

“Contacts through intelligence-service channels are in themselves a positive phenomenon, a positive process. These contacts often continue even in the most difficult moments of bilateral relations. But whether this will affect, on the whole, the process of bringing our bilateral relations out of the deep crisis they are in — it’s premature to say at this point,” said Peskov.

The trip came as peace negotiations on all sides are stalled and Russia and Ukraine have stepped up attacks on each other with Ukraine using long range drone strikes to inflict widescale damage on Russia’s energy infrastructure and Russia has been exploiting gaps in in Ukraine’s Western-supplied air defenses to pound its cities, with deadly consequences.

Ratcliffe was the first CIA Director to visit Moscow in almost five years since former William Burns flew to meet with Russian senior officials in November 2021 and cautioned Putin to his face not to invade Ukraine and set out the repercussions of ignoring the warning.

Eight weeks later Russian tanks rolled across the border into Ukraine.

A Ukrainian official said Kyiv was notified in advance of Ratcliffe’s trip and asked to halt all strikes against Russia until the U.S. delegation was well out of Russian airspace.