CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Russia to attend meetings in Moscow on Tuesday, according to US media outlets, in what is believed to be Ratcliffe’s first known trip to Russia since taking over as US spy chief. The Kremlin has ruled out a meeting with Putin.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said that CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow on 25 August was related to contact between the Russian and US intelligence services. Peskov declined to provide any further details, according to The Washington Post.
A United States Air Force Boeing C-17 transport aircraft landed at Vnukovo airport outside Moscow on the morning of August 25 and departed about four hours later, flight-tracking data showed. The aircraft had flown from Joint Base Andrews near Washington with a stop in Riga, the Latvian capital.
CBS News and Axios first reported that Ratcliffe was on board, citing unnamed sources. The CIA declined to comment and neither the White House nor the US embassy in Moscow has commented publicly.
Washington asked Ukraine to hold off strikes on Moscow, St Petersburg and northern Russian regions between August 24 and 26 while the delegation was in the country, a source familiar with the request told Reuters.
