Russian President Vladimir Putin was ready to meet with the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (US) John Ratcliffe during his visit to Moscow. However, after learning the content of the message he brought, the Kremlin decided that the meeting was pointless, writes the Russian publication Agency, citing an anonymous source who describes himself as close to the Kremlin, reports Focus.
As the source told the journalists, Ratcliffe arrived in the Russian capital with a call to reach an agreement to end the war against Ukraine as soon as possible. The CIA director assumed that Russia's situation in the war and in the economy was deteriorating, which is why it was more profitable for the Kremlin to reach an agreement now.
In Moscow, John Ratcliffe met with the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (RF) Sergei Naryshkin and, according to a number of Western media outlets, with the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov. After one of these meetings, Putin was given the contents of the conversation and the Kremlin rejected the offer of a personal meeting with Ratcliffe.
"His message sounded as if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was already considering the Kremlin“, the publication quotes its source.
Describing the Kremlin's reaction to the message, the source notes that "it seems Ratcliffe got the wrong address“.
At the same time, the source refuses to answer to what extent the position of the CIA director coincides with that of the administration of US President Donald Trump.
On August 25, it became known that CIA Director John Ratcliffe had secretly arrived in Moscow. The same day, media reported that the US had asked Ukraine to refrain from strikes on Moscow, St. Petersburg and northern Russia during the delegation's stay, and the WSJ suggested that Ratcliffe may have arrived in Moscow with a warning to Putin amid intelligence reports of Russia preparing a mobilization and a possible test of NATO's resolve.