A rare trip by the highest official of American foreign intelligence to Russia. The head of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, is visiting Moscow on Tuesday August 25, according to the American media CBS and Axios, without the American government nor the Kremlin having so far officially confirmed this trip.
An American military plane took off Tuesday morning from Latvia towards Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, according to data from the specialist site Flightradar24. This same plane left the Russian capital early Tuesday evening.
Questioned during his daily briefing, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov replied that he did not have “this information”. He had also previously stated that no meeting in the Kremlin with representatives of the American administration was planned for this week.
The Financial Times claims for its part that Washington asked Ukraine, which agreed, not to strike the Russian capital, Saint Petersburg or other areas of northern Russia on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, in order to allow the trip of a senior American official.
Many subjects can justify this trip by the head of the CIA: the war in Ukraine, the conflict with Iran, at a time when Washington is trying to rally foreign powers to its strategy of economic pressure on Tehran or even prisoner exchanges.
President Donald Trump, who maintains a direct line of communication with Vladimir Putin, claimed on August 11 to have obtained the release of a former Marine detained in Russia, Robert Gilman, during personal discussions with his counterpart.
He had sent his son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow several times for discussions with the Russian president.
With AFP
