CIA Director Makes Mysterious Trip to Moscow

CIA Director John Ratcliffe flew to Moscow Tuesday on a secret trip that suddenly burst into public view when online flight trackers noticed a US Air Force cargo plane landing in Russia.Neither the White House nor the Kremlin commented on the intelligence director’s trip, but the Kyiv Independent cited a source that said Mr. Ratcliffe was on the ground in Russia to meet with “senior Russian officials.” Flight data showed Mr. Ratcliffe’s plane spent several hours on the ground in the Russian capital before departing.The Independent’s source said that Ukrainian officials are aware of the trip, and that the US asked Kyiv to hold off on any strikes against Moscow or St. Petersburg while Mr. Ratcliffe was in Russia.Mr. Ratcliffe appears to have taken a C-17A Globemaster III from Riga, Latvia – a NATO nation on the Baltic Sea – to Vnukovo International Airport south of Moscow. He landed around 10 a.m. local time, according to flight data published by the website Flightradar24.The website tracked the flight’s origin point to Joint Base Andrews, the military base outside Washington, DC which houses a large number of US government aircraft, including Air Force One.Video posted on social media also appeared to show a motorcade with US diplomatic plates moving through the streets of the Russian capital under police escort.The trip marks Mr. Ratcliffe’s first trip to Russia. Then-CIA Director Bill Burns traveled secretly to Moscow in late 2021 at the behest of then-President Joe Biden to urge the Russians not to launch a full scale invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Burns spoke directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin on that trip.Mr. Putin’s chief spokesman Dimitry Peskov said Tuesday he had “no information” about a US Air Force cargo plane landing in Moscow.

CIA Director Makes Mysterious Trip to Moscow

CIA Director Makes Mysterious Trip to Moscow

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