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Russian media: Putin angrily canceled meeting after hearing CIA chief’s message
🇭🇷 Croatia /Conflict & Security

Russian media: Putin angrily canceled meeting after hearing CIA chief’s message

From Večernji List · () Croatian

Translated from Croatian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Unnamed sources Ongoing story
  • CIA Director John Ratcliffe secretly visited Moscow on Aug. 25 and met Russian intelligence chiefs Sergei Naryshkin and Alexander Bortnikov.
  • The Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo reported that Vladimir Putin initially planned to meet Ratcliffe but canceled after learning about his message on ending the Ukraine war.
  • The contents and purpose of the visit remain disputed, with accounts differing over whether it involved renewed peace talks or a possible leaders’ meeting.

A planned meeting between Vladimir Putin and CIA Director John Ratcliffe allegedly fell apart after Ratcliffe delivered a bleak assessment of Russia’s position in the war in Ukraine, according to the Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo.

Ratcliffe traveled secretly to Moscow on Aug. 25 and met Sergei Naryshkin and Alexander Bortnikov, the heads of Russia’s foreign intelligence and domestic security services. The Kremlin confirmed that Putin did not meet the CIA director. Agentstvo, citing a source close to the Kremlin, said Putin had initially adjusted his schedule to receive Ratcliffe.

According to that account, Ratcliffe urged the Russian leadership to reach an agreement to end the war as soon as possible. He reportedly argued that Russia’s military and economic situation was worsening, making a deal now preferable to waiting for its position to deteriorate further. The New York Times had previously reported that Ratcliffe gave Bortnikov a “grim assessment” of Russia’s wartime position and called for Moscow to begin peace negotiations.

grim assessment

— The New York TimesThe phrase described Ratcliffe’s reported assessment of Russia’s position in the war.

The official content of the talks has not been released. Naryshkin confirmed meeting Ratcliffe but described it as a working session that was not unusual for contacts between intelligence services. Agentstvo said parts of the discussions were later relayed to Putin, after which the meeting was abandoned.

Other accounts have offered a different picture. Axios reported that renewed Russia-Ukraine peace talks were among the topics and that Ratcliffe may have raised a possible meeting involving Donald Trump, Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump previously described the visit as a “semi-routine” contact. The competing accounts leave the exact purpose of Ratcliffe’s Moscow trip unresolved.

semi-routine

— Donald TrumpTrump used the phrase to characterize Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow.
About this summary

Originally published by Večernji List in Croatian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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