Kremlin: CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Russian intelligence officials but not Putin

By Vaughn Cockayne - The Washington Times - Wednesday, August 26, 2026

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.

Media 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.

The trip is the first official trip to Moscow for Mr. Ratcliffe, who has served as CIA director since early 2025.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Mr. Ratcliffe had met with intelligence officers during his trip and Mr. Putin was briefed on the conversations.

Mr. Peskov declined to provide any details on the talks, including whether they are in related to the Ukraine peace talks, which have stalled for months following the launch of the U.S.-Iran war.

“These contacts often continue even during the most difficult periods in bilateral relations,” he told reporters Wednesday. “It is still too early to say to what extent this will, overall, ⁠help to steer our bilateral relations out of the profound crisis in which they currently find themselves.”

Tuesday reports indicated that U.S. officials had asked Ukraine to temporarily suspend its long-range strikes against Russia until the delegation had left Moscow.

The meeting coincided with a phone conversation between Foreign Intelligence Service chief Sergei Naryshkin and Mr. Ratcliffe, supposedly the first time the two agency heads have spoken in more than two years.

Russian state media reported Tuesday that the two intelligence chiefs agreed to continue regular contact and work to reduce tensions between Washington and Moscow.

The trip also followed the announcement of Operation Economic Outcast, the Trump administration’s effort to use secondary sanctions to isolate Iran from the world economy.

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.