Frank Williams, Vilnius
CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced visit to Moscow on Tuesday for meetings with Russian security officials, people familiar with the matter said, as U.S. efforts to end the war in Ukraine remain stalled and Washington intensifies pressure on Iran.
Ratcliffe flew on a U.S. military C-17 transport plane that landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport after a stop in Riga, Latvia. He spent several hours on the ground before departing the same day. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the visit involved “contacts between security services” and confirmed no meeting with President Vladimir Putin was planned.
U.S. officials asked Ukraine to pause strikes on Moscow and other northern Russian cities during the visit window, according to people familiar with the request. Neither the CIA nor the White House commented publicly on the trip, Ratcliffe’s first known visit to Moscow as agency director.
The visit came one day after the Treasury Department announced a new campaign of sanctions and pressure aimed at isolating Iran economically. Russia remains a key partner of Tehran. Peace negotiations over Ukraine have made little progress, and U.S. intelligence has tracked Russian military preparations that could signal further escalation.
Separately Tuesday, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s top diplomat, met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow and called for an end to the war. “This war must end,” Gallagher said, urging genuine negotiations and respect for humanitarian law. It was the first in-person meeting between senior Vatican and Russian officials in five years.
