US CIA Director John Ratcliffe held talks with Russian intelligence officials during his visit to Moscow on Tuesday but did not meet President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin had been briefed on the outcome of Ratcliffe’s talks, which come as the war in Ukraine is escalating and as efforts to reach a lasting peace deal between the U.S. and Iran have stalled.
Peskov declined to disclose what had been discussed or to provide any further details however.
“All I can tell you is that there have been contacts via the security services. I can tell you that there have been no meetings with the Russian president. Naturally, President Putin is kept informed of everything without delay,” said Peskov.
Asked if visits by such senior US officials could help improve the dire state of US-Russia relations, Peskov said that contacts between the two countries’ intelligence agencies were a positive thing.
❗️’Putin Immediately Informed Regarding Results of CIA Director's Visit to Moscow' – Kremlin Spox Peskov
— RT_India (@RT_India_news) August 26, 2026
‘There were contacts between intelligence agencies, but there were no meetings with President Putin,’ Peskov added.
📹: Kremlin https://t.co/UjA0huU13i pic.twitter.com/QEFCDY68X1
“These contacts often continue even during the most difficult periods in bilateral relations. Our president, incidentally, has spoken about this. However, it is still too early to say to what extent this will, overall, help to steer our bilateral relations out of the profound crisis in which they currently find themselves,” he said.
A US Air Force C-17A Globemaster III, identified by flight trackers as RCH4555, flew from Joint Base Andrews to Riga on Sunday evening before continuing on Tuesday to Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport. Later that day, a motorcade with US diplomatic plates was spotted in central Moscow.
CBS News first reported that Ratcliffe was in Moscow for meetings, citing sources familiar with the situation. It was also not clear whether the visit – which ultimately lasted roughly eight hours – involved any other senior US officials.
FIRST ON CBS: CIA Director John Ratcliffe is in Moscow, Russia for meetings, sources familiar with the situation told CBS News Tuesday.
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 25, 2026
News of his trip comes after a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17A Globemaster III transport plane was spotted at a Moscow airport, along with a U.S.… pic.twitter.com/sX3lmsoCuB
Media reports have floated several possible subjects of the secretive talks, including detainee negotiations, the Ukraine peace process, the Iran conflict, and broader questions of strategic stability.
The last publicly disclosed contact between Ratcliffe and top Russian officials took place in March 2025, when the CIA director spoke by phone with Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergey Naryshkin. At the time, the SVR said Russia and the US agreed to maintain dialogue in order to “promote international stability and security, as well as to reduce tensions in relations between Moscow and Washington.”
Source: RT and Reuters (edited by Al-Manar)