Kremlin Confirms CIA Director John Ratcliffe's Unusual Moscow Meeting
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The Kremlin said Wednesday that CIA Director John Ratcliffe joined Russian intelligence officials for talks Tuesday during his visit to Moscow but did not meet with President Vladimir Putin.
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Associated PressThe Kremlin said Wednesday that CIA Director John Ratcliffe held talks in Moscow with his intelligence counterparts, a rare and secretive visit at a time when relations with Washington remain strained over Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Fox NewsCIA Director John Ratcliffe flew to Moscow to meet with Russian intelligence officials, the Kremlin reportedly said Wednesday, after video emerged of a U.S. military transport plane coming in for a landing Tuesday at Vnukovo airport.
PBS NewsHourThe Kremlin says the CIA director held talks in Moscow with his intelligence counterparts The Kremlin said Wednesday that CIA Director John Ratcliffe held talks in Moscow with his intelligence counterparts, a rare and secretive visit at a time when relations with Washington remain strained over Russia's war in Ukraine.
BreitbartCentral Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe did not meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his surprise visit to Moscow on Tuesday, a Kremlin spokesman said.
The Guardian USRatcliffe’s visit was the first from a CIA director since his predecessor Bill Burns travelled to Moscow in November 2021 to warn Putin of the consequences of attacking Ukraine.
New York PostWASHINGTON — President Trump insisted Wednesday that CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s surprise trip to Moscow wasn’t to warn President Vladimir Putin not to “test NATO resolve” or “strike England” after the Cabinet official’s unannounced four-hour visit on Tuesday launched rampant speculation.
The HillTrump calls CIA director’s trip to Russia ‘semi-routine’ President Trump referred to CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s trip to Russia this week as “semi-routine” after the Kremlin confirmed Ratcliffe was in the country to meet intelligence officials.  “I hate to disappoint people,” Trump told conservative talks show host Glenn Beck on Wednesday.  “John Ratcliffe is a fantastic guy. He’s the head of the CIA,…
BBC NewsJohn Ratcliffe reportedly arrived in the Russian capital earlier on Tuesday. Neither Washington or Moscow have confirmed the nature of the visit or who he was due to meet.
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The unusual activity came as Ratcliffe traveled to the Russian capital aboard a US Air Force Boeing C-17A Globemaster III.
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Washington TimesMr. Ratcliffe’s first known visit to Moscow stirred interest when people spotted a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17A Globemaster III transport plane landing in the Russian city.
The Guardian USRatcliffe was reported to have flown to Moscow on a government transport plane on Tuesday in a rare visit after taking off from the Andrews air force base in Maryland.
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Footage posted on social media showed the C-17 transport plane approaching Moscow's Vnukovo international airport.
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Washington TimesMedia reports revealed the highly unusual visit Tuesday after publicly available flight-tracking data showed a U.S. Air Force C-17A Globemaster III traveling from Joint Base Andrews to Moscow.
Fox NewsVideo captured a U.S. military transport plane coming in for a landing Tuesday at Moscow's Vnukovo airport, in a flight that the Kremlin initially claimed it had no information about.
New York PostThe military transport was tracked flying into Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport before departing several hours later.
Associated PressRussian state news agencies reported that a U.S. military plane landed in Moscow’s Vnukovo airport on Tuesday and departed later that day.
BreitbartAs reported, the trip has excited considerable comment given it was unannounced, yet the track of the C-17 Globemaster was fully visible to the public given it flew with its transponders turned on. The aircraft had transited from Andrews AFB near Washington over the weekend and was joined in Riga, Latvia — the location of a major NATO command — by a U.S. military executive transport Boeing.
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“We would like to see the war with Ukraine end,” Mr. Trump said. “Something might come out of [the visit]. We’re working very hard to get that war ended, and frankly, they both want to see it ended at this point.”
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Fox News"We would like to see the war with Ukraine end," Trump added, before saying, "Now something may come out of it.
The Guardian US“He’s there, you know, very sort of semi-routine. I hate to disappoint people. We would like to see the war with Ukraine end,” Trump said.
New York Post“We would like to see the war with Ukraine end. That’s a war would have never started, Glenn,” Trump went on.
Associated PressIn his radio appearance Wednesday, Trump repeated that he wants to see the Russia-Ukraine war end.
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A senior Ukrainian official told The Associated Press that Washington informed Kyiv a delegation would be traveling to the Russian capital and asked it to suspend strikes until it left. The official said the request did not apply to all Russian territory, but specifically to Moscow, St. Petersburg and some northern regions. Strikes on other parts of Russia continued, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk publicly.
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Fox NewsA senior Ukrainian official told The Associated Press that Washington informed Kyiv a delegation would be traveling to the Russian capital and asked it to suspend strikes until it left.
Washington TimesTuesday reports indicated that U.S. officials had asked Ukraine to temporarily suspend its long-range strikes against Russia until the delegation had left Moscow.
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The US has had strained relations with Russia since it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Since then, Russia has been isolated on the world stage and faced international economic sanctions.
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Associated PressRussia-U.S. relations sank to Cold War lows after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but appeared to warm after Trump returned to office. He had promised to end the war swiftly, holding multiple phone calls with Putin and even hosting him in Alaska a year ago.
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Russia remains a key trading partner with Iran, and Washington may want to avoid a larger conflict with Moscow over the issue as it attempts to broker peace in Ukraine.
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Associated PressRussia has proposed to mediate in the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran, Moscow’s important ally in the Middle East.
8 details only one outlet reported
Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 New York Post At least four Boeing E-6B Mercury aircraft were tracked over the West Coast and central US, while a fifth was tentatively identified as another Mercury, according to public flight-tracking data that quickly drew the attention of military aviation enthusiasts, the Daily Mail reported.
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02 The Guardian US “John Ratcliffe is a fantastic guy. He’s the head of the CIA, and he is not in there for any of the things that you said. Now something may come … out of it. We’re working very hard to get that war ended, and frankly, they both want to see it ended at this point.”
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03 Breitbart Peskov added that President Putin had been briefed on the talks. As for how they would impact American-Russian relations, Peskov went on: “It’s too early to say how much this will impact the overall process of bringing our bilateral relations out of the deep crisis they are in”.
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04 Associated Press CBS News first reported on the visit. Kremlin says US-Russia relations are in a ‘profound crisis’
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05 Fox News Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House, the CIA and the U.S. Embassy in Moscow for further comment.
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06 BBC News Published The head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has travelled to Moscow for unannounced talks, the BBC's US news partner CBS has reported.
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07 ABC News Ukraine agreed to a U.S. request not to attack Moscow during Ratcliffe's visit. LONDON -- Ukraine resumed drone attacks on Moscow overnight into Wednesday morning, the city's Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said, hours after the departure of the plane that carried CIA Director John Ratcliffe to Moscow for an unannounced visit on Tuesday morning.
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08 Washington Times Mr. Trump explained the sudden trip to Moscow in an attempt to put to rest online speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin might be preparing to launch a new offensive in Europe.
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