CIA Director Ratcliffe Lands in Moscow for Talks
CIA Director Ratcliffe Lands in Moscow for Talks
The News
CIA Director John Ratcliffe is in Moscow for unannounced meetings with Russian officials, U.S. officials told CNN and Axios on Tuesday.
Ratcliffe traveled overnight, a U.S. official familiar with his travel told CNN. Two U.S. officials told Axios he is holding talks with Russian officials Tuesday.
It is Ratcliffe's first trip to Moscow since he took office, and the highest-level visit to Russia by a Trump administration official since January, according to Axios.
Timeline
Russia's state-run Tass news service reported that a large U.S. military transport plane had landed in Moscow, Bloomberg reported.
A U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17A Globemaster III was spotted at a Moscow airport along with a U.S. diplomatic motorcade, CBS News reported, per Political Wire.
CBS News reported that Ratcliffe was in Moscow for meetings — a report picked up by Bloomberg and Reuters.
A U.S. official told CNN that the CIA director had flown to Moscow overnight to meet Russian officials.
Reactions
Neither the U.S. nor the Russian government has commented on the trip, Political Wire reported.
The U.S. officials who described the travel to CNN and Axios did so anonymously, and none of the accounts of the visit have been confirmed on the record.
What's Next
No public schedule for the visit has been released, and neither capital has said who Ratcliffe is meeting or what is on the agenda.
Watch for an on-the-record confirmation from the White House, the CIA or the Kremlin, and for any readout of what was discussed.
More
The first public sign of the trip was the aircraft itself: the transport plane's arrival, reported by Tass, and the C-17A and diplomatic motorcade seen at a Moscow airport, came before any word that the U.S. spy chief was aboard the visit.
Axios notes the visit stands out because it is the highest-level Trump administration trip to Russia since January.
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