CIA Director John Ratcliffe, during a visit to Moscow, suggested that the Russian side hold a trilateral meeting of the leaders of the United States, Russia and Ukraine Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky to resolve the Ukrainian conflict. This is reported by Axios, citing two sources familiar with the situation.
American officials informed Zelensky about the talks in Moscow and the proposal to hold a trilateral summit, and also reported that Ratcliffe discussed the possibility of resuming a peaceful dialogue there, the newspaper writes.
The CIA Director visited Moscow on August 25. The next day, the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed that contacts through the special services had indeed taken place, but Putin had not met with the head of the CIA.
"Of course, everything is reported to President Putin immediately," he added.
The head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, confirmed a meeting with Ratcliffe in Moscow. According to Naryshkin, he and the director of the CIA discussed issues related to the special services. According to Axios, Ratcliffe also met with FSB director Alexander Bortnikov.
As The Wall Street Journal and Politico wrote, citing sources, Ratcliffe warned Moscow during the visit about the inadmissibility of an attack on NATO. WSJ clarified that it was about, among other things, the Baltic countries — Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia.
US President Donald Trump, in turn, said that Ratcliffe did not transmit warnings from the United States to the Russian authorities during his visit to Moscow. He called his visit to Russia "semi-routine." According to the president, he is not concerned about a hypothetical Russian attack on NATO. At the same time, as the WSJ wrote, Trump personally sent the CIA director to Moscow, and his mission was "so delicate" that even some White House officials did not know about it in advance.
In January, before the start of the war, the United States and For example, American officials reported that bilateral talks between Putin and Zelensky or trilateral talks with the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and the United States are "not so far away." Putin had previously invited Zelensky to Moscow, explaining that Trump had asked him to meet with the Ukrainian leader.
"If Zelensky is ready to come to Moscow, such a meeting will take place," Putin said at the time.
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