Reason CIA boss made secret trip to Moscow following warning to Putin
On Tuesday (25 August), CIA chief John Ratcliffe made a rare, secret trip to Moscow.
The US spy boss met with Russian intelligence officials after arriving unannounced on a US military plane, as confirmed by the Kremlin.
And while Donald Trump says this trip was a ‘semi-routine’ visit, it’s raised a lot of eyebrows. There’s no official comment from the US on why Ratcliffe went on this mission, but it’s been widely reported that the reason he went out there was to issue a warning.
It’s been nearly five years since the last chief of the CIA, William J. Burns, made the trip over to Russia – just as it was gearing up plans for an invasion of Ukraine.
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And it’s said Ratcliffe’s visit was in relation to this conflict and Nato.
A source told Politico that the boss’ ‘meeting was primarily to warn Russia against any escalatory action against the Baltic states’.
Ratcliffe apparently warned officials not to escalate conflict with America’s Nato allies in response to the stalemated invasion of Ukraine.
There have been increasing fears that Vladimir Putin could attack an allied country in a test of Nato’s resolve. That puts eyes on the likes of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuannia which were all once a part of the Soviet Union.
In recent weeks, Russia has also issued a series of threats against Nato countries which support Ukraine.
The UK is also caught up in these worries as just yesterday, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Russia could strike British military targets. This would be in retaliation for Ukraine using British missiles in strikes on Russia.
On Wednesday, Trump denied speculation that Ratcliffe had made the trip to persuade Putin not to test Nato’s resolve or attack the UK.
While acknowledging that it was about bringing the war to an end, he called it ‘semi-routine’.
“I hate to disappoint people. We would like to see the war with Ukraine end,” the president said.
Putin’s team have insisted Ratcliffe did not meet with the leader.
His press secretary Dmitry Peskov said earlier in the week that the CIA chief sat down with members of the 'intelligence services' and that 'naturally, Putin is briefed immediately about everything'.
"How much this will impact the overall process of recovering our bilateral relations from the profound crisis they're currently in, it is premature to say," Peskov added.
Politico also reported that Ratcliffe also used the trip to Moscow to ‘press Russia to reduce military and economic support for Iran’.
Topics: Russia, NATO, Donald Trump
Jess Battison