Top US spy chief makes surprise trip to Moscow aboard military aircraft

CIA Director John Ratcliffe has made an unannounced visit to Moscow, according to reporting by CBS News, the BBC's American broadcast partner. The spy chief is said to have touched down in the Russian capital on Tuesday morning, but officials in Washington and Moscow have offered no confirmation of the purpose of his trip or the identities of those he planned to see.

Aviation tracking records appear to corroborate the reports. Data from FlightRadar24 shows a large US Air Force C-17 transport plane leaving Riga, Latvia, at 05:50 GMT before landing at Moscow's Vnukovo airport shortly after 07:00 GMT. The aircraft then flew back to the Latvian capital shortly before 17:00 GMT. Videos shared on social media captured the military jet on its approach, as well as what appeared to be a diplomatic convoy moving through city streets.

Visits to Russia by senior American officials remain highly unusual given the frozen state of relations between the two countries since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. If confirmed, the journey would place Ratcliffe among the most senior figures from President Donald Trump's administration to set foot in Russia during his second term.

According to a senior Ukrainian official who spoke to CBS, Kyiv was informed in advance that a high-level American delegation would be travelling to Moscow — and was asked to hold off on strike operations until the delegation had departed the country.

It is believed to be Ratcliffe's first visit to Russian soil since becoming CIA director, although he has reportedly stayed in regular contact with his intelligence counterparts in Moscow. The agency he leads was central to a landmark 2024 prisoner exchange that freed journalist Evan Gershkovich, former marine Paul Whelan and Russian-American reporter Alsu Kurmasheva. Ratcliffe also personally took part in talks that secured the release of Ksenia Karelina, a Russian-US citizen detained for more than a year on charges stemming from donations to Ukraine.

John Foreman, who served as Britain's defence attaché in Moscow from 2019 to 2022, told BBC Radio 4 that the secrecy surrounding the trip suggests something significant is underway. He suggested the agenda could involve managing escalation risks, pointing to recent unexplained drone sightings in Germany that have fuelled suspicion of Russian involvement, or could relate to efforts to free Americans still held in Russian custody.

The visit comes at a delicate moment for diplomacy. President Trump met Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska last year, but the encounter failed to produce a breakthrough, and subsequent US-brokered negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine have since lost momentum.