CIA director John Ratcliffe has made an unannounced, brief visit to Moscow for meetings with Russian intelligence counterparts.
The surprise trip comes amid heightened tensions over the war in Ukraine, regional stability on NATO’s eastern flank, and other geopolitical flashpoint.
It emerged after flight-tracking data revealed a US Air Force Boeing C-17A Globemaster III transport plane touched down at Vnukovo International Airport.
The jet left Riga, Latvia, at around 8.50am Moscow time (1.50am ET, 6.50am BST) and landed just outside the Russian capital approximately 74 minutes later.
The flight’s arrival was highly unusual given the current tensions between Washington and Moscow.
It also comes at a particularly fraught moment on NATO’s eastern frontier, with Russian missiles and drones repeatedly testing Poland’s air defenses.
A Russian missile entered Polish airspace and crashed in July, prompting Warsaw and the bloc to activate air and ground defenses and scramble aircraft.
NATO chief Mark Rutte called the episode ‘another reckless act by Russia’ and a dangerous consequence of its war against Ukraine.
