CIA director John Ratcliffe took an unannounced flight to Moscow to warn Russia it needed to cut a deal with Ukraine before its military and economic situation worsens.
On Tuesday it was reported that John Ratcliffe had made a secret flight as speculation grew about why a US military plane had landed in Russia.
The director of CIA met with Russian intelligence officials and deliver high-level security warning but made no threats about any potential consequences should Russian president Vladimir Putin ignore the CIA’s assessment.
The CIA has long questioned whether Putin’s advisers give him the whole truth about the invasion’s trajectory and toll on the country.
The American agency has also held lines of communication open with both the FSB and Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the SVR, for many years.
Separately, Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the US President’s son-in-law, have established communication channels with some of Putin’s senior advisers.
However, officials think that Putin, himself a former intelligence official, would take the warning seriously if it came from the CIA director, according to the New York Times.
