According to reports, CIA Director John Ratcliffe secretly flew to Moscow on Tuesday. The purpose of Ratcliffe’s Russia trip is unclear, though inside sources that spoke with CBS News said that he is attending meetings. His visit marks the first time since 2021—months before Russia invaded Ukraine—that a director of the CIA has visited the country.
News of Ratcliffe’s involvement came in the wake of intense speculation surrounding a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17A Globemaster III transport plane that was spotted flying from Riga, Latvia, to Vnukovo Airport just outside Moscow.
An observer who flew out of Riga Airport Tuesday morning described seeing an aircraft similar in shape, color, and size to a U.S. Air Force C-40B—which are typically used to transport senior U.S. government officials and senior military commanders—alongside the C-17, as well as several cars with diplomatic plates.
Air traffic trackers recorded the C-40’s flight path originating at Joint Base Andrews and landing in Riga.
Moscow residents shared video of the envoy’s arrival, which involved multiple SUVs with tinted windows breezing through city traffic with a heavy police escort.
Neither the U.S. nor Russia has commented on the trip or offered any insight into who is participating in the meetings. Rather, the Kremlin announced Tuesday that no talks between Moscow and U.S. envoys were expected this week.
“No, there are no such plans,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a press conference when asked whether more talks had been scheduled to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
Trump administration officials reportedly asked Kyiv not to strike Moscow, St. Petersburg, or the northern regions of Russia between Monday and Wednesday, to which Ukraine agreed, according to the Financial Times.
The CIA’s press office did not respond to a request for comment prior to publication.
Former CIA Director William Burns was the last CIA chief to visit Moscow. He did so in November 2021 to warn senior Russian officials and Russian President Vladimir Putin against war with Ukraine. Fast-forward to today, four years into the war, and peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have made little progress.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is grappling with a domestic catastrophe alongside the violent conflict. Last week, Zelenskiy’s ousted Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov accused Zelenskiy’s administration of rampant corruption and called for a wartime poll to potentially unseat the former comedian, despite regional laws that prevent an election during wartime. Zelenskiy told reporters Sunday that he believed an election at this time would “destroy” Ukraine.
The Republican Party’s first-ever midterm convention is quickly becoming a Trump-style grift.
Puck reports that the National Republican Campaign Committee, which is hosting the September event, is asking for House members to pay a minimum of $25,000 to attend the two-day event in Dallas with a guest, with higher packages costing as much as $100,000. On top of that, the event is taking corporate sponsorship dollars, which are going to a nonprofit that doesn’t have to disclose its donors.
All this is for a convention that doesn’t include any actual party business, since no candidates are being nominated like in presidential election years. The whole thing appears to have been planned haphazardly, with invitations only going out in the last few weeks to Republican leaders and lawmakers, many of whom have other commitments.
“It’s yet another opportunity to shake down corporate America,” one Republican strategist told Puck, adding that it has turned into a “shit show.”
