CIA director met with Russian intelligence officials, not president, Kremlin says

U.S. CIA Director John Ratcliffe held discussions with Russian intelligence officials during a visit to Moscow on Tuesday, the Kremlin confirmed Wednesday. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Ratcliffe did not meet with President Vladimir Putin.

Peskov informed reporters that Putin had been briefed on the results of Ratcliffe's talks but refrained from offering additional details. He also indicated it was too early to determine if these intelligence contacts could help improve the strained U.S.-Russia relationship, which he described as being in a "deep crisis."

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Putin had been briefed on the outcome of Ratcliffe's talks, but declined to provide further details.

The visit was the first known trip to the Russian capital by a U.S. spy chief since Ratcliffe's predecessor, William Burns, met with Putin in November 2021. Approximately three months after that meeting, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Reports of Ratcliffe's visit emerged Tuesday, stating he traveled to Russia on a U.S. military C-17 transport plane and departed that same evening. A source familiar with the trip told The Jerusalem Post that Trump administration officials had requested Ukraine pause any strikes against Moscow and other Russian cities from Monday through Wednesday.

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it was also too early to say whether such contacts between the two countries' intelligence agencies could help pull US-Russia relations out of what he described as a "deep crisis."