{"id":11995,"date":"2026-08-27T06:51:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/11995\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T06:51:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:51:49","slug":"cia-chief-made-secret-moscow-visit-to-warn-putin-against-attack-on-nato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/11995\/","title":{"rendered":"CIA chief made secret Moscow visit to warn Putin against attack on Nato"},"content":{"rendered":"

The CIA director’s secret visit to Moscow this week was to warn Vladimir Putin against an attack on Nato, it was reported.<\/p>\n

The rare trip by John Ratcliffe followed a recent US intelligence assessment that Russia could attack the alliance’s eastern flank<\/a> within weeks to test the alliance’s resolve.<\/p>\n

Without any signs of a breakthrough on the battlefield, US officials believe Putin may attempt to escalate tensions by mounting a small land incursion,<\/a> likely into a Baltic nation, or launching cyber attacks across Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n

During Mr Ratcliffe’s eight-hour trip on Tuesday, he warned Russia not to escalate conflict with US Nato allies, according to sources cited by both The Wall Street Journal and Politico.<\/p>\n

While his meeting was “primarily to warn Russia against any escalatory action against the Baltic states”, one source told Politico, he also reportedly used the unannounced visit to push Russia to reduce military and economic support for Iran.<\/p>\n

The White House has refused to comment on the nature of the trip, which comes at a time when US-brokered peace talks<\/a> have stalled and civilian casualties in Ukraine continue to mount.<\/p>\n

The last time a CIA director visited Moscow was in November 2021, when William Burns warned Russia against attacking Ukraine. A few weeks later, Moscow launched a full-scale war against its neighbour.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin on Wednesday confirmed that Mr Ratcliffe, one of Donald Trump’s closest aides, held talks with Russian intelligence officials in the capital, but did not meet with Putin.<\/p>\n

Seeking to downplay his spy chief’s visit, Mr Trump said on Wednesday his visit was “semi-routine”, but implied that it concerned the Ukraine war.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Donald<\/p>\n

Donald Trump sought to downplay the visit, calling it ‘semi-routine’ – Reuters<\/p>\n

According to US intelligence reports, a possible attack by Russia on Nato could happen anytime between autumn and 2029, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.<\/p>\n

It marks a significant shift, as US officials previously stated Russia would not attack while its military is weighed down in its fifth year at war with Ukraine.<\/a><\/p>\n

Such a move would trigger the alliance’s Article 5, which states that an armed attack on one member is considered an attack against all.<\/p>\n

However, Moscow has been consistently probing Nato’s red lines through a range of hybrid threats that have tested the alliance’s collective response.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, a Russian missile landed in Poland,<\/a> while three explosive drones were found at Leipzig\/Halle airport in Germany, a major logistics hub for Nato and Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Russian missile left a crater near the south-eastern Polish village of Tarnawa-Kolonia<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, France’s top domestic intelligence official said it was assessing the possibility of attacks against its essential companies and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

“The discovery in Leipzig of an explosive drone that was by all appearances aimed at an aircraft supporting the Ukrainian army is a signal that we must consider the possibility of more direct, more violent actions on our territory,” C\u00e9line Berthon, the director of France’s DGSI counter-intelligence agency, said.<\/p>\n

Moscow has denied any involvement in the incident.<\/p>\n

Last month, The Telegraph reported that European and US intelligence had picked up on Russian considerations for an armed provocation on Polish soil, missile or drone attacks against critical infrastructure, or false-flag attacks attempting to place the blame on Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The CIA director’s secret visit to Moscow this week was to warn Vladimir Putin against an attack on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7035,57,7123,6988,2437,7,287,20,185,468,437],"class_list":["post-11995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-cia-director","tag-donald-trump","tag-intelligence-assessment","tag-john-ratcliffe","tag-moscow","tag-nato","tag-nato-allies","tag-russia","tag-the-wall-street-journal","tag-ukraine-war","tag-vladimir-putin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11995","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=11995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}