CIA Director John Ratcliffe warned Russian officials during his visit to Moscow against escalating the conflict with NATO, particularly with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, two people familiar with the matter told Politico on Wednesday.
“The main purpose of Ratcliffe’s visit was to warn against escalatory actions targeting the Baltic states,” one of the sources said.
The second source added that the CIA Director also sought to persuade Moscow to reduce its military and economic support for Iran.
Earlier on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal also reported that Ratcliffe had warned Russia against attacking NATO member states.
The newspaper provided no further details.
As previously reported,
the CIA Director unexpectedly arrived in Moscow from Riga aboard a US military aircraft
on Tuesday morning and returned later that evening.
US President Donald Trump said in an interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Wednesday that Ratcliffe’s trip to Moscow had been a “routine” visit during which he discussed Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“We would like the war against Ukraine to end,” the US President added.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that the purpose of Ratcliffe’s visit had been “contacts between intelligence services,” adding that no meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin had taken place.
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