CIA chief John Ratcliffe holds rare secret Moscow intelligence talks

CIA Director John Ratcliffe travelled to Moscow for rare talks with Russian intelligence officials. The secret contact highlighted active backchannels despite a deep US-Russia crisis over Ukraine and regional security.The Kremlin said on Wednesday that CIA Director John Ratcliffe had visited Moscow for talks with his Russian intelligence counterparts, in a rare and secretive contact at a time when ties between Washington and Moscow remain strained over Russia's war in Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ratcliffe did not meet President Vladimir Putin, but added that the Russian leader had been informed of the contacts.Peskov said the discussions were held "on the intelligence agencies' level" and declined to say what was discussed. "Of course, President Putin is immediately informed of everything," he said. The CIA declined to comment, and there was no immediate response from the White House. Russian state news agencies reported that a US military plane landed at Moscow's Vnukovo airport on Tuesday and left later the same day.A senior Ukrainian official told AP that Washington informed Kyiv that a delegation would be travelling to the Russian capital and asked it to suspend strikes until the delegation had 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 authorised to speak publicly. CBS News first reported on the visit.Peskov said that "contacts between intelligence agencies are, in and of themselves, a positive phenomenon, a positive process", but stressed that Russia-US relations remain in a "profound crisis". He also said it was "too early to say" what effect Ratcliffe's visit might have on ties between the two countries. Andrei Soldatov, an expert on Russia's security services, told AP that visits like Ratcliffe's do not "happen every year". He said official channels of communication between Moscow and Washington have existed since the 1980s and allow both sides to talk if American or Russian lives are in danger, or for other reasons. Soldatov said details of Tuesday's discussions had not been disclosed, but such meetings usually happen only when there is a pressing national security issue and when it is in "American national interests".He also pointed to earlier contacts between the two sides. In 2021, Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Putin's Security Council, met CIA Director William Burns in Moscow months before Russian forces invaded Ukraine. Burns later met Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia's foreign intelligence agency, in Turkey in November 2022 to warn Russia not to deploy a nuclear weapon in Ukraine. Russia-US relations fell to Cold War-era lows after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but appeared to improve after President Donald Trump returned to office. He had promised to end the war quickly, held multiple phone calls with Putin and hosted him in Alaska a year ago. Those efforts have largely stalled since then, with US attention shifting to its war with Iran and both Moscow and Kyiv stepping up long-range attacks on each other. Putin has rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's call for an immediate ceasefire, saying Russia wants "a comprehensive settlement, not a temporary truce".Russia has also offered to mediate in the US and Israel's war with Iran, an important Russian ally in the Middle East. After Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Tehran supplied Russia with Shahed drones and later licensed their production in Russia. In January 2025, Moscow and Tehran signed a "comprehensive strategic partnership" treaty. At the same time, Russia has remained friendly with Israel, and analysts have described Moscow's ties with Iran as complex and challenging.In March, AP reported that Russia had provided Iran with information that could help Tehran strike American warships, aircraft and other assets in the region, citing two officials familiar with US intelligence. The officials, who were not authorised to comment publicly, said the intelligence had not shown that Russia was directing Iran on how to use the information. Asked then if Russia would go beyond political support and offer military assistance to Iran, Peskov said there had been no such request from Tehran. When pressed on whether Moscow had provided any military or intelligence help to Tehran since the start of the Iran war, he declined to comment.Soldatov said Tuesday's meeting may have included discussion on protecting US personnel, bases or facilities in the Middle East that have been targeted by Iran, and that Ratcliffe may have travelled to Moscow in an effort to influence that relationship. The visit, though secretive and without publicly known outcomes, underlined that intelligence contacts between the two sides remain active even as the broader relationship stays in deep crisis.With PTI Inputs- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Aug 26, 2026 18:50 IST