<p class="wp-block-paragraph">CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow aboard a C-17 Globemaster to engage in discussions with Russian officials.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">His visit was reported by CBS News and cited by Russian state media, including TASS. U.S. and Russian officials both declined to comment or claimed ignorance. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated he was not aware of any visit or meetings. If confirmed, this would be Ratcliffe’s first known visit to Russia.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The use of the U.S.’s largest aircraft to visit Moscow led to speculation. The flight was monitored by air traffic observers and filmed by locals. In a widely circulated video on social media, a local was heard joking, “We are under attack!”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The flight remained unclear for several hours. A convoy of vehicles with U.S. diplomatic plates was recorded in Moscow shortly after.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Ratcliffe’s visit was later confirmed by other outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Axios, and several Ukrainian outlets. The last known trip by a CIA director to Russia was by William Burns in November 2021, who visited to warn against an invasion of Ukraine.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The C-17 departed from Moscow on Tuesday evening.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Details of the visit remain limited, with various outlets speculating on the purpose, including discussions about prisoner swaps, negotiations regarding Iran, or warnings against testing NATO defenses. Intelligence figures have been cautioning about these issues for weeks.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The meeting likely related to the war in Ukraine, as negotiations have stalled. Rustam Churyakov, general director of the Moscow-based intelligence think tank Laboratory Intelligence Express, told the Wall Street Journal that Russia has prioritized its intelligence connections with the U.S. since the beginning of the war, as intelligence officials can discuss sensitive topics more openly than diplomats.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“The U.S. has supported Ukraine since the very beginning of the war and from the point of view of our state, it’s an opponent, but colleagues from intelligence agencies like these can discuss a large number of issues more freely than politicians,” he said.</p>