The US Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe, during his visit to Moscow, warned Russia against attacking NATO countries, in particular Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
Politco writes about this, citing sources.
The publication also writes that the Russian Federation was called upon to stop economic and military support for Iran.
The day before, the Kremlin announced the reason for CIA Director John Ratcliffeʼs secret visit to Moscow. According to Putinʼs spokesman Peskov, he arrived to establish contacts between the intelligence services. Earlier, on Tuesday, Peskov claimed that the Kremlin knew nothing about the American military aircraft in Vnukovo and was not planning any meetings with the US this week.
The route is indicative: according to Flightradar24, the C-17A military transport plane flew to Riga — it stayed there for almost a day, then flew to Moscow, where it stayed for 8.5 hours, and returned to Riga.
Axios writes that the day before, the US informed Ukraine about the delegationʼs trip to Moscow and asked it to suspend strikes for the time being. FT journalist Christopher Miller specifies that Kyiv was asked not to strike St. Petersburg and the northern regions of the Russian Federation on August 24-26. According to him, Ukraine agreed.
WSJ writes about another motive: the US has intelligence about Russiaʼs preparations for mobilization and plans to "test NATOʼs resolve" — analysts consider Ratcliffeʼs visit a warning to Moscow. Michael Weiss, editor of The Insider, also suggests that Ratcliffe could have discussed strikes on energy and ports and a pause in fighting in Sumy and Kharkiv regions — as a step towards de-escalation.
- The last such visit by an American intelligence officer was in November 2021, when Burns warned Putin about the consequences of an attack on Ukraine. A few weeks later, a full-scale war began.
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