Kremlin: CIA Director's visit to Moscow intended for intelligence coordination

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov addressed today (Wednesday) the visit of CIA Director John Ratcliffe to Moscow and said that the visit is "related to coordination between intelligence agencies." Ratcliffe arrived in Moscow for meetings with Russian officials, after the United States asked Ukraine to refrain for three days from attacks using drones and missiles in Moscow and other cities in northern Russia, concurrently with the American official's visit. The Ukrainians were updated that a senior American official was expected to visit Russia. This is the first known visit by Ratcliffe to the country since he was appointed head of the CIA under President Donald Trump, and it took place against the backdrop of contacts between Washington and Moscow and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Concurrently with the visit, an American C-17 military transport aircraft landed at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow. According to flight tracking data, the plane departed from the Andrews base area in the United States and passed through Riga, the capital of Latvia, before arriving in Russia. The visit comes at a time of broader regional tension, among other things around Iran and the close ties between it and Moscow, alongside American efforts to increase economic pressure on Tehran.