CIA director makes secret trip to Moscow amid diplomatic efforts

CIA Director John Ratcliffe flew to Moscow on August 25 aboard a US military C-17 Globemaster III, spent roughly eight hours on the ground, and left. No press conference, no photo ops, no formal sit-down with Vladimir Putin. Just the kind of quiet, high-stakes visit that tends to make the rest of the world very nervous. It was the first trip to Moscow by a serving CIA director since William Burns made the same journey in November 2021, weeks before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. That earlier visit carried a warning against invading. This one, nearly five years into the war, carried warnings of a different kind. What happened on the ground Ratcliffe’s aircraft departed Joint Base Andrews and stopped in Riga, Latvia, before landing at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow. The Kremlin confirmed the visit took place, describing it as involving “contacts between security services.” No meeting with President Putin occurred, at least not one either side chose to acknowledge. The visit was quickly reported by CBS News and The New York Times after the fact, though neither the CIA nor the White House offered on-the-record commentary beyond the bare confirmation that Ratcliffe had t...