{"id":11991,"date":"2026-08-27T06:36:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/11991\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T06:36:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:36:28","slug":"cia-chief-john-ratcliffe-warned-russia-not-to-attack-nato-in-secret-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/11991\/","title":{"rendered":"CIA chief John Ratcliffe warned Russia not to attack NATO in secret visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The trip was spy agency chief John Ratcliffe\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

A shortfall in critical Western munitions, driven by expenditures in the Iran war, could also factor into Putin\u2019s thinking. The US has severely degraded its stockpile of certain weapons because of transfers to Ukraine after Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion, as well as the Iran conflict.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t meet Putin. Putin was briefed on the talks, Mr Peskov said.<\/p>\n

The White House has offered little clarity about Mr Ratcliffe\u2019s trip to Moscow. During an interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Wednesday, President Donald Trump described Mr Ratcliffe\u2019s trip as \u201csemi-routine\u201d and pivoted to discussing Russia\u2019s war with Ukraine. \u201cSomething may come out of it,\u201d Mr Trump said. \u201cWe\u2019re working very hard to get that war ended and frankly they both want to see it ended at this point.\u201d <\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the White House referred reporters to Mr Trump\u2019s Wednesday comments. A spokeswoman for the CIA declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Mr Ratcliffe, one of Mr Trump\u2019s closest aides, was the latest US official to make the trip to Moscow following several visits by Steve Witkoff, the President\u2019s envoy for Ukraine-Russia peace talks.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Wall Street Journal<\/p>\n

Read related topics:Vladimir Putin<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The trip was spy agency chief John Ratcliffe\u2019s first publicly known visit to the Russian capital. It followed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6293,7077,7071,7083,5739,7111,7082,7069,7121,7112,7096,7092,7103,7091,5656,5675,7062,7079,7114,7068,7101,7087,7073,6294,7088,7105,7084,7094,7097,7093,7063,5746,7120,7075,6988,7076,2437,7113,7095,3683,7,393,7119,7116,2979,288,7106,3352,140,7115,7099,20,7089,5705,7067,7080,7110,7104,7108,7066,7118,7064,7100,7117,6069,7086,7122,7102,6222,7070,6205,7078,7090,7072,7085,7074,5700,7098,185,3881,7109,5992,7107,71,7065,336,437,130,1147,607,7081],"class_list":["post-11991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-s-2022-invasion","tag-s-closest-aides","tag-s-envoy","tag-s-first-publicly","tag-s-resolve","tag-s-surprise-moscow-trip","tag-s-thinking","tag-s-trip","tag-s-visit","tag-s-war","tag-s-wednesday-comments","tag-semi-routine","tag-a-baltic-nation-a-shortfall","tag-a-cia-director","tag-a-cyberattack","tag-a-limited-assault","tag-a-rare-visit","tag-a-small-scale-land-incursion","tag-a-spokeswoman","tag-a-us-spy-agency-chief","tag-a-warning","tag-an-allied-country","tag-an-assault","tag-an-interview","tag-certain-weapons","tag-cia-chief","tag-comment-mr","tag-conservative-radio-host-glenn-beck","tag-critical-western-munitions","tag-expenditures","tag-his-time","tag-home","tag-its-fifth-year","tag-its-stockpile","tag-john-ratcliffe","tag-little-clarity","tag-moscow","tag-mr-peskov","tag-mr-ratcliffe","tag-mr-trump","tag-nato","tag-nato-countries","tag-new-us-intelligence-assessments","tag-november-2021","tag-people","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-president-joe-biden","tag-pressure","tag-putin","tag-ratcliffe","tag-reporters","tag-russia","tag-russian-intelligence-officials","tag-russian-president-vladimir-putin","tag-secret-visit","tag-several-visits","tag-spy-agency-chief-john-ratcliffe","tag-steve-witkoff","tag-talks","tag-the-agency","tag-the-central-intelligence-agency","tag-the-cia","tag-the-director","tag-the-iran-conflict-kremlin-spokesman-dmitry-peskov","tag-the-iran-war","tag-the-last-known-visit","tag-the-latest-us-official","tag-the-next-few-years-us-officials","tag-the-north-atlantic-treaty-organisation","tag-the-president","tag-the-resolve","tag-the-russia-ukraine-war","tag-the-russian-capital","tag-the-surprise-visit","tag-the-talks","tag-the-trip","tag-the-us","tag-the-visit","tag-the-wall-street-journal","tag-the-white-house","tag-this-point","tag-this-week","tag-transfers","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-russia-peace-talks-the-trip","tag-visit","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-war","tag-wednesday","tag-white-house","tag-william-burns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}