CIA Chief Holds Talks with Russian Intelligence in Moscow; No Meeting with President Putin

CIA Director John Ratcliffe Moscow: US CIA Director John Ratcliffe conducted a brief, high-level trip to Moscow on Tuesday to meet with Russ...

CIA Director John Ratcliffe

Moscow: US CIA Director John Ratcliffe conducted a brief, high-level trip to Moscow on Tuesday to meet with Russian intelligence officials, according to statement released by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday.

Ratcliffe arrived aboard a US military C-17 transport aircraft for the talks and departed the same evening. While the US delegation did not meet directly with President Vladimir Putin, Peskov confirmed that Putin received a full briefing on the meeting's outcomes. The Kremlin declined to reveal further specifics, noting it is premature to determine whether intelligence-level diplomacy can alleviate the current "deep crisis" in US-Russia relations.

US President Donald Trump addressed the visit during an interview on The Glenn Beck Program on Wednesday, indicating that "something may come out of" the CIA director's discussions in Moscow.

Context & Security Measure: This marks the first known Moscow visit by a sitting CIA Director since William Burns met with Putin in November 2021, three months before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Diplomatic Pause: Sources familiar with the trip confirmed that Trump administration officials requested Ukraine to pause long-range strikes against Moscow and other major cities from Monday through Wednesday to facilitate safe transit during the mission.