CIA director John Ratcliffe made a trip to Moscow on Tuesday for discussions with Russian officials, as per reports from various U.S. media sources. This visit marks the first publicized trip by a U.S. intelligence head to the Russian capital since William Burns, Ratcliffe’s predecessor, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in November 2021, three months before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Reports from CBS News and Axios revealed Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow. Ratcliffe, who previously served as the director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, did not disclose the purpose of his meetings or the topics under discussion. Additional coverage from ABC News, CNN, and the Wall Street Journal confirmed the occurrence of the meeting.
The CIA chose not to comment on the matter. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov neither confirmed nor denied the reports, stating that Putin had no scheduled meeting with Ratcliffe. Last week, the U.S. advised Ukraine against conducting airstrikes near Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other regions of Russia due to the planned arrival of a senior U.S. official in Moscow, as mentioned by a reliable source.
The source did not provide further details, with the Financial Times being the first to report the U.S.’s message to Ukraine. On Monday, the U.S. warned countries to sever business relations with Iran or face secondary sanctions, part of efforts to increase economic pressure amid the ongoing U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran initiated in February.
The U.S. currently lacks an ambassador to Russia, a country with significant ties to Iran across military, economic, and diplomatic sectors. Tehran reportedly supplied drones to Moscow for its operations in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously accused Russia of supplying similar drones to Iran. An intelligence report from Ukraine, as cited by Reuters in April, alleged that Russia provided satellite imagery to Iran for targeting U.S. facilities in the Middle East.
Moscow has denied these claims, expressing readiness to assist in resolving the U.S.-Iran tensions.