CIA Director John Ratcliffe was in Moscow on Tuesday, according to reports from American networks CBS News and Axios, later picked up by Brazilian outlets G1 and CNN Brasil. As of publication, neither the White House nor the Kremlin has officially confirmed the trip, and the CIA itself declined to comment.
The reports, which cite unnamed sources, say Ratcliffe held meetings with Russian officials, though neither outlet specified who he met or what was discussed. A US military aircraft took off from Joint Base Andrews, near Washington, on Sunday, made a stop in Riga, the capital of Latvia, and on Tuesday morning continued on to Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, according to flight-tracking site Flightradar24. The same plane left the Russian capital Tuesday evening.
Asked about the visit at his daily press briefing, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he "did not have that information." He had previously stated that no meetings with representatives of the American administration were scheduled at the Kremlin that week.
If confirmed, the trip would be Ratcliffe's first known visit to Russia since taking office in 2025, and the first by a sitting CIA director to Moscow since predecessor William Burns met with President Vladimir Putin in November 2021, about three months before the Kremlin ordered the invasion of Ukraine.
Possible reasons for the trip
Likely topics of discussion include the war in Ukraine and tensions with Iran, at a moment when Washington is trying to rally foreign powers behind its economic pressure campaign on Tehran. The visit came a day after the Donald Trump administration threatened sanctions against any country that maintains trade relations with Iran. A prisoner exchange is also cited as a possible item on the agenda, since Washington continues to press for the release of American citizens held in Russia.
According to Britain's Financial Times, the United States reportedly secured a guarantee from Ukraine that its drones would not strike Moscow or other areas earlier in the week, to clear the way for the visit of a senior American official. Ukrainian forces have recently stepped up attacks on Russian territory, at times far from the front line, in response to the full-scale invasion Russia launched in February 2022. Trump had once vowed to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office, but peace negotiations remain stalled.