Why was the CIA chief in Moscow?
The head of the US Central Intelligence Agency John Ratcliffe was in Moscow on Tuesday for talks. The visit was unofficial and unannounced, but the media got wind of it when a large US military cargo aircraft was spotted flying from Washington via Riga to Moscow on Flightradar24. The Kremlin later confirmed the visit, saying there had been "talks between the intelligence services".
Seeking a way out of the Iranian deadlock
The visit was probably about Iran rather than Ukraine, sociologist Igor Eidman suspects on Facebook:
“Many are wondering why CIA Director Ratcliffe made such an unexpected and urgent trip to Moscow. Some are even pinning their hopes on it – that Russia might be forced to make peace. Sadly I thing these hopes are in vain. In reality, Ratcliffe probably didn't fly to Moscow because of Ukraine but because of the deadlock situation in which Trump now finds himself in the war with Iran. ... That is why Trump, like a drowning man, now seems prepared to grasp at any straw.”
Deliberately obvious
In any case the visit was certainly not intended to be secret, notes La Repubblica:
“Had CIA Director John Ratcliffe preferred to keep a low profile, he could have used other means to travel to Moscow in secret. ... It therefore remains unclear why the head of the US intelligence services made his first visit to Russia so public, and for what purpose he spent four hours in the capital. Speculation ranges from warnings to Putin that he had better not extend the invasion of Ukraine to Nato member states to more innocuous and relatively routine negotiations regarding the exchange of prisoners.”
Secret service as troubleshooter?
The visit could be a sign of a genuine crisis, warns Corriere della Sera:
“The involvement of intelligence chiefs does not necessarily mean that a major agreement is in the pipeline. Sometimes it can actually mean the opposite: relations have deteriorated to such an extent that a confidential channel is required to prevent incidents, convey warnings and discuss issues such as terrorism, nuclear weapons or prisoner exchanges. Shortly before Ratcliffe's trip, the intelligence services revealed Putin's plans to carry out new mass mobilisations and threaten the Suwalki Corridor, which separates Russia [Belarus] from the Kaliningrad exclave, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania – all bad news as far as Nato is concerned.”