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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
25 August, a mysterious U.S. Air Force plane that landed at Vnukovo made headlines around the world. It later emerged that it had brought to the Russian capital an infrequent visitor — Director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency John Ratcliffe. U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to downplay the significance of the trip, but interest in it is only growing. The publication GORDON has compiled the main facts about who and why sent the CIA chief to Moscow, why even some White House officials did not know about it, whom he met with, and which “grim” messages he conveyed to his Russian counterparts.
Who knew
The U.S. president the day after Ratcliffe’s visit called his trip “semi-routine.” “Maybe something will come of it. We’re working very hard to put an end to this war [Russia’s war against Ukraine], and, frankly, at this point they — probably Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and [the illegitimate Russian president Vladimir] Putin — both want it to end,” Trump added.
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27 August the U.S. president told Axios that the visit was “a normal thing” and expressed surprise at the level of media coverage. “Ratcliffe meets with his Russian counterpart once every six months or once a year. They have a very good relationship,” Trump said.
According to The Wall Street Journal, it was the U.S. president who instructed the CIA director to make the trip. The media reports that Ratcliffe’s task was so delicate that even some senior White House officials who should have been informed were unaware of the message he conveyed to the Kremlin.
European partners also appear not to have been informed. Because the plane Ratcliffe used to get to Moscow stopped in Riga, the visit was known in Latvia. That country’s president, Gitanas Nausėda, told reporters that he already knew on 24 August about the planned visit itself, but partners promised to inform him later about its purpose and content — “practically without delay, next week.” “I can only assume that this meeting is devoted to reducing geopolitical tensions, and I’m very positive about that,” the Lithuanian president added.
The Kremlin, on the day the plane landed, claimed it had no information about the flight, and confirmed Ratcliffe’s visit only on 26 August.
Who he met with
Trump referred to a “colleague” but did not name him. The Kremlin did not disclose the names of Ratcliffe’s counterparts, but the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the aggressor country, Sergey Naryshkin, announced his meeting with the CIA chief himself, and the NYT learned about Ratcliffe’s talks with FSB head Alexander Bortnikov.
Why he went
Several theories circulate in the media about what issues he might have raised at the meetings. For example, there is speculation that Ratcliffe’s visit was an attempt to warn Russia against a tactical nuclear strike on Ukraine or to warn about internal risks to Putin’s regime (allegedly "the snuffbox has already been raised"). But the main topics cited by U.S. media, citing their sources, are two.
Ratcliffe warned Russia against attacking NATO, particularly the Baltic states, and reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to Article 5 of the NATO charter on collective defense in case one of the Alliance’s members is attacked. This took place amid reports of a growing threat to the Baltic countries. Media even reported that European commissioners sent a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressing concern and proposing an “urgent” visit by the entire EC to one of the Baltic states. After Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow, Trump said Putin does not plan such an attack. Trump did not specify what his prediction was based on.
He delivered to Naryshkin a “grim” assessment of Russia’s situation in the war with Ukraine and said Moscow should start serious negotiations. Before the visit, he spoke with representatives of Ukrainian intelligence services, warning that he did not intend to make concessions on behalf of Kyiv.
Ratcliffe is the man to whom Ukraine owes the continuation of U.S. intelligence-sharing efforts and that the United States provides that support for free. He, sources in the media say, told Bortnikov that the lifespan of a Russian soldier on the front line is less than 35 minutes and that over the past 18 months Russia has captured only 1% of Ukraine’s territory.
What this visit means
Despite Trump’s attempts to downplay the trip, Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow represents a raising of the stakes, says former Ukrainian foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin. In an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty he noted: it’s one thing when President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner go to the Kremlin (these contacts run parallel to the channel of communication the CIA director has, NYT wrote), and quite another when the CIA director comes. It’s the first time in five years, since the last known visit by the head of that agency to Russia was made by predecessor William Burns in November 2021.
“It’s one thing when Witkoff and Kushner go to the Kremlin, and quite another when John Ratcliffe arrives. He has his own understanding of the threat; an enormous amount of information flows to him. He’s a very good analyst. He’s different from William Burns in life experience. But he’s a very good analyst, as I know from my friends. He is able to assess information, and Trump listens to him. We know that in some critical cases Trump listened very attentively to what Ratcliffe said and, as far as I know, was guided by what he was told,” Klimkin explained.
In his view, Putin pays attention to the messages Ratcliffe delivered “because he fully understands: the only ones capable of acting harshly in this world are the Americans, [...] and intelligence services generally don’t joke.”
But at the same time, the former minister believes, the Kremlin leader does not want to stop the war.
“What does this mean for Ukraine? I don’t think this meeting is bad for us — that’s my intuition. It’s unlikely the Americans will advance some separate option specifically for us, because they see the world differently: we are important to them not by ourselves, but as an asset through which they can influence Russia, and therefore indirectly China, through which they can influence Europe, drive technological development, and accumulate data for platforms that make decisions based on artificial intelligence. It’s not very pleasant to be an asset, but it’s better to be an asset than nothing. There will be no soft, comfortable reality for us,” Klimkin stated.
The NYT calls the visit “the administration’s last-ditch effort to breathe new life” into the negotiating process to end Russia’s war against Ukraine.
According to the publication, European senior officials believe there may be an opening this winter to reach a peace deal. And, in their view, the White House should add to the list of people involved in pressuring Russia over negotiations a security official — someone like Ratcliffe who can deliver tough messages to the Kremlin. Witkoff and Kushner are considered in Ukraine to be too close to Russia, while Ratcliffe is labeled a “hawk” regarding Russia.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Людина, яку слухає Трамп. Чому про візит Реткліффа у Москву не знали навіть у Білому домі – питання і відповіді". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Gordon.
