Trump’s CIA Director John Ratcliffe went to Moscow this week to warn Russia about staging any attacks against NATO neighboring territories, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The visit was discovered on Tuesday and reported on Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the matter over concerns of the war in Ukraine escalating.
Trump described the meeting as “semi-routine,” and added “something may come out of” the Moscow visit.
President Zelensky has said earlier this month that Putin was preparing to escalate the war.
The intelligence assessments outline several possible scenarios for Russian escalation, ranging from a cyberattack to a small-scale incursion intended to challenge NATO’s unity and commitment to Article 5 — which states that an attack on one member is an attack on all — without necessarily crossing the threshold for an allied response, the sources said.
Ratcliffe also reportedly was in Moscow to encourage Russia to cut off support, economic and military, to Iran, as the misadministration works to choke off Iran economically in order to open the Strait of Hormuz.
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.