The trip was spy agency chief John Ratcliffe’s first publicly known visit to the Russian capital. It followed new US intelligence assessments, reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal, that Russian President Vladimir Putin could try to test the resolve of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation with a limited assault on an allied country in the next few years.
US officials are increasingly concerned that Putin, squeezed in Ukraine and under pressure at home, could launch an assault ranging from a cyberattack to a small-scale land incursion, likely on a Baltic nation.
A shortfall in critical Western munitions, driven by expenditures in the Iran war, could also factor into Putin’s thinking. The US has severely degraded its stockpile of certain weapons because of transfers to Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion, as well as the Iran conflict.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow on Wednesday that Mr Ratcliffe held talks with Russian intelligence officials during his time in the Russian capital, but he didn’t meet Putin. Putin was briefed on the talks, Mr Peskov said.
The White House has offered little clarity about Mr Ratcliffe’s trip to Moscow. During an interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Wednesday, President Donald Trump described Mr Ratcliffe’s trip as “semi-routine” and pivoted to discussing Russia’s war with Ukraine. “Something may come out of it,” Mr Trump said. “We’re working very hard to get that war ended and frankly they both want to see it ended at this point.”
A spokeswoman for the White House referred reporters to Mr Trump’s Wednesday comments. A spokeswoman for the CIA declined to comment.
Mr Ratcliffe, one of Mr Trump’s closest aides, was the latest US official to make the trip to Moscow following several visits by Steve Witkoff, the President’s envoy for Ukraine-Russia peace talks.
The trip was a rare visit by a US spy agency chief with the Russia-Ukraine war now in its fifth year. The last known visit by a CIA director to Moscow was in November 2021, when William Burns, who led the agency under president Joe Biden, warned Putin not to attack Ukraine.
The Wall Street Journal
Read related topics:Vladimir Putin