CIA Chief’s Surprise Moscow Trip Was to Warn Russia Not to Attack NATO – WSJ
CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s surprise visit to Moscow this week was to warn Russia against attacking NATO countries, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people briefed on the trip.
It was Ratcliffe’s first publicly known visit to the Russian capital and followed new U.S. intelligence assessments that President Vladimir Putin could test NATO’s resolve with a limited attack on an allied country within the next few years.
U.S. officials fear Putin, under pressure in Ukraine and at home, could launch anything from a cyberattack to a small land incursion, likely against a Baltic nation. A shortage of critical Western munitions, partly caused by spending on the Iran war, could also factor into his calculations. U.S. stockpiles of some weapons have been reduced by transfers to Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion and the Iran conflict.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Ratcliffe met Russian intelligence officials but not Putin, who was briefed on the talks.
The White House offered little detail. President Trump called the trip “semi-routine,” saying, “Something may come out of it,” while stressing efforts to end the Ukraine war.
Ratcliffe is the latest U.S. official to visit Moscow after envoy Steve Witkoff’s trips. The last known CIA director to visit was William Burns in November 2021, when he warned Putin against attacking Ukraine.
