CIA Director Ratcliffe Visits Moscow for Talks

CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Moscow on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, for a series of meetings with Russian officials, marking the first known visit to the Russian capital by a U.S. spy chief since 2021. The unannounced trip, confirmed by multiple officials familiar with the meetings, comes amid stalled diplomatic efforts to resolve the ongoing war in Ukraine and follows a period of heightened international tension. The visit was revealed after a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, with the callsign REACH4555, was tracked flying from Riga, Latvia, to Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow on Tuesday morning.