Agenstvo: CIA director traveled to Moscow to urge peace talks. Putin planned to meet him but changed his mind.

Vladimir Putin had intended to meet with CIA Director John Ratcliffe during his August 25 visit to Moscow, but cancelled the encounter after discovering the true intent of the trip, according to a Kremlin source. Ratcliffe urged Russian leadership to negotiate an end to the war with Ukraine, citing Russia's deteriorating military and economic circumstances.

The CIA director met with Sergey Naryshkin, head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), according to Western media. The discussions likely influenced Putin's decision to forgo his scheduled meeting with Ratcliffe, as the substance of those conversations reached the Kremlin.

The New York Times reported that Ratcliffe shared a dire assessment of Russia's position in the war with Ukraine and advocated for the commencement of peace talks. The CIA director's message seemed to imply that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was already near the Kremlin, a notion the source deemed incorrect. It remains uncertain if Ratcliffe's stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict reflected the broader White House perspective.

This was the first trip by the head of the American intelligence agency to Russia since the onset of the full-scale war. The visit was unannounced and shrouded in secrecy, with the Kremlin announcing that Putin had not met with Ratcliffe, despite their private discussions. Several theories regarding the purpose of Ratcliffe's visit have circulated, ranging from advocating for peace talks and warning against an attack on NATO countries to calling for decreased cooperation with Iran.

Axios suggested Ratcliffe also proposed a meeting among the presidents of the United States, Russia, and Ukraine. The Kremlin maintained that such a meeting would only transpire to "finalize agreements." Meduza, the outlet that reported this story, is dedicated to transparency in its use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom.

This account was authored by a human journalist and translated from Russian using an AI model configured in accordance with their editorial guidelines.