Donald Trump said CIA Director John Ratcliffe carried no message to Russia in his Moscow visit. An earlier Politico report presented it as a warning against a possible move on NATO members. The public accounts now conflict.
In an Axios interview reported by the Kyiv Independent, Donald Trump said he was not concerned about a possible Russian provocation against a NATO country. He described CIA Director John Ratcliffe's 25 August Moscow visit as routine business and rejected reports that Ratcliffe had carried a message for his Russian counterpart. Trump said the director meets that counterpart every six months or annually and that there was nothing unusual about this visit.[1]
On 26 August, Politico reported that Ratcliffe went to Moscow to warn against an attack on NATO's Baltic members. That earlier report, retained in the Brief lineage, said US intelligence was concerned Moscow could test the alliance with a limited move against a Baltic state. This account gives the same visit a different meaning from Trump's 28 August assertion that no message was carried.[1], [2]
According to details reported by the Kyiv Independent, Ratcliffe travelled to Moscow from Latvia and did not meet Vladimir Putin during a visit of roughly eight hours. Those details establish the visit's basic outline, but do not resolve the difference between Trump's statement and Politico's report. Public accounts have not set out an official agenda, the text of any possible warning or an agreed outcome between the sides.[1], [2]
