Update: NBC News reports that when CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Russia’s top spy chief this week, he asked that Moscow not share intelligence with Iran, according to a U.S. official and a Kremlin adviser. This is still anonymous information.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s mysterious trip to Moscow this week was preceded by fresh U.S. intelligence indicating that the Kremlin sees the United States as weakened by the Iran war, offering Russia an opportunity to escalate action against American interests and allies in Europe, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The details of Ratcliffe’s talks with his Russian counterpart remain secret, but one of the people told The Washington Post that the CIA chief warned Moscow against ramping up its war against Ukraine, arguing that such a move would backfire. This person and others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the subject’s sensitivity.
That being said, you can’t count on anything the legacy media says as factual.
Original Story
CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s trip to Moscow on Tuesday was reportedly for contact between the US and Russian security services. This is according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
The visit lasted eight hours, according to RT. It’s unclear who was in the meeting.
Separately, Peskov told TASS that “contacts with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin were not planned.”
Speaking to reporters later on Wednesday, Peskov said Putin had been kept in the loop about the talks. He called the engagement between the special services “a positive phenomenon.” However, he cautioned that it is “too early to say” whether the talks “will affect the overall process of bringing our bilateral relations out of the deep crisis.”
Following the visit, the Kremlin warned ‘it is too early to say if the deep crisis in US-Russia relations can be overcome’, before boasting ‘Ukraine is definitely losing the war’.
US President Donald Trump described the visit as “semi-routine.” Asked by talk show host Glenn Beck whether Putin planned on “testing NATO resolve,” or whether Ratcliffe discussed US sanctions on Iran, Trump replied “none of the above.”
NATO is worried about Russian drones.
This month, Germany faced a series of unexplained drone incidents. Leipzig-Halle airport, a major NATO military logistics hub and European base for Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines, temporarily suspended flights after an armed drone was discovered next to a Ukrainian aircraft.
Original Story
CIA director John Ratcliffe traveled to Moscow on Tuesday for meetings with Russian officials. It’s a rare and unusual visit.
CBS News and Axios reported on the visit by Ratcliffe, U.S. President Donald Trump’s CIA chief. ABC News, CNN, and the Wall Street Journal also reported that the meeting was taking place. No leaks on why yet, but there are some possibilities.
Possibilities
The U.S. doesn’t have an ambassador to Russia, a close strategic partner with Iran. Tehran supplies drones to Russia in its war against Ukraine. Maybe Ratcliffe is serving as a quasi-ambassador as the President warns nations against doing business with Tehran.
There is another pressing issue. Putin has threatened a NATO country, the UK.
Russia says the UK’s decision to share missile blueprints with Ukraine is evidence of its direct military involvement in the war.
Factories manufacturing drones in the United Kingdom for export to Ukraine could come under attack from “unknown sources”, a Kremlin adviser has said, after Britain agreed to share long-range missile blueprints with Kyiv.
Andrei Fedorov, an adviser to the Kremlin and a former deputy foreign minister, told British broadcaster BBC on Tuesday that he could not “exclude 100 percent” that there might be some “semi-military” action against Britain, as UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham visited Ukraine.