Ratcliffe in Moscow

The unannounced flight of CIA Director John Radcliffe has stirred up a lot of fervid speculation over the reasons for the trip. The latest comes mainly from the Wall Street Journal and Politico, the former of which declaring that “the surprise visit by the director of the Central Intelligence Agency to Moscow this week was to deliver a warning to Russia not to attack NATO countries, according to people briefed on the visit.” The trip “followed new U.S. intelligence assessments, reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal, that Russian president Vladimir Putin could try to test the resolve of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization with a limited assault on an Allied country in the next few years,” the paper added. Politico also cited two anonymous “people familiar with the matter” as saying Ratcliffe “warned Russian officials in Moscow this week not to escalate conflict with America’s NATO allies, in particular Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, in response to Moscow’s stalemated invasion of Ukraine.” It added that Ratcliffe also used the trip to “press Russia to reduce military and economic support for Iran, according to one of those two people and a U.K. official with knowledge of the trip.” Russia has reportedly aided Iran with satellite intelligence for its missile launches against U.S. and allied targets in the Middle East. The Washington Post discovered Ratcliffe’s secret trip to Moscow by analyzing publicly available flight‑tracking data and geolocating social‑media video of a U.S. diplomatic motorcade in central Moscow.