On Tuesday morning, a US Air Force plane that landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, arriving directly from Riga, became a political mystery for several hours.
Initially, the Kremlin claimed to know nothing about the aircraft or possible meetings with the Americans. However, CBS News soon reported that CIA Director John Ratcliffe arrived in Moscow by plane.
This is the first visit of a sitting CIA director to Russia since November 2021, when then-agency director William Burns met with Nikolai Patrushev in Moscow. At that time, the US tried to warn the Russian leadership about the planned invasion of Ukraine. A few months later, the war still began.
Visits by intelligence chiefs of this level are usually not intended for ceremonial diplomacy. They more often signify an attempt to convey a message that is not wanted or cannot be publicly expressed through regular diplomatic channels.
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In the Baltic region, the natural question arose whether possible topics of conversation could have included Russia’s actions on NATO’s eastern flank – from hybrid operations to possible military provocations.
However, Konstantin Egert, a Russian politics expert and DW commentator who commented on the situation for 15min, suggests not to overestimate either the visit or the possibly conveyed message.
According to the expert, a high-ranking US official’s visit to Moscow does not necessarily mean a diplomatic breakthrough or a new attempt to revive negotiations over the war in Ukraine. In his assessment, contacts of this nature, especially when involving the CIA director, are often related to specific practical issues.
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