CIA Director John Ratcliffe is attending a secret meeting Moscow, Russia, according to a report from CBS News on Monday. This is Ratcliffe’s first known visit to Moscow as director of the US foreign intelligence service.
As per the report, a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17A Globemaster III transport plane accompanied by a US diplomatic motorcade landed at a Moscow airport. This took place after Ratcliffe left Washington on Sunday, flying to Riga, Latvia via a US government aircraft, travelling to Moscow from the country.
According to Axios, the U.S. informed Ukraine that a senior delegation would be arriving in Moscow and asked the country to suspend its strikes until it departs from Russia.
Ratcliffe’s arrival comes at a time when talks between Russia and Ukraine who have at war since 2022, have been largely stalled since the trilateral negotiations mediated by the US in February 2026.
The CIA also participated in the detainee exchanges between US and Russia, with the latter’s FSB (the successor to the USSR’s KGB) facilitating the release of Ksenia Karelina, a national with dual citizenship for both countries in 2025. Karelina was facing up to 12 years in a Russian prison on charges of treason.
She was arrested by Russian authorities after she donated $51 to a US-based humanitarian group aiding Ukranians impacted by the war, as per Russian state media.
It also enaged in a similar prisoner exchange for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, marine veteran Paul Whelan and radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, with the first two being accused of espionage by Russian authorities and Kurmasheva facing allegations of “distributing false information”.
(This is a developing story.)
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