President Donald Trump’s central intelligence chief traveled to Moscow this week with a warning to Russia not to stage an attack in NATO territory, among other issues, according to two people familiar with the matter.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe also used the trip, which wasn’t announced publicly, to encourage Russia to cut off economic and military support for Iran as the administration works to choke off Tehran financially.
American and European officials have grown increasingly concerned that Russian President Vladimir Putin could test NATO with a limited incursion, potentially on one of Moscow’s neighbors, as his war in Ukraine grinds ahead without resolution.
Ratcliffe’s trip this week was the first known visit by a senior Trump administration official to Moscow in months. The last visit by a CIA director to the Russian capital came under the Biden administration in 2021, when William Burns warned Putin against a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia invaded three months later.
CNN has reached out to the CIA. The Wall Street Journal first reported on Ratcliffe’s warning in Russia.
