The head of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, has flown to Moscow for secret in-person talks with Russia following weeks of drone attacks, war threats and more.
The Kremlin has been issuing ominous warnings towards Britain and the US – with attempts to de-escalate by Washington so far unsuccessful.
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Flight tracking data confirmed a large US military aircraft travelled to Russia from the US via Latvia on Tuesday.
A US Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III transport plane was later spotted at a Moscow airport, along with a US diplomatic motorcade, US outlet CBS News first revealed.
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The intelligence agency has not commented on the visit.
The meeting is said to be the first by Mr Ratcliffe to Russia as CIA Director, but he maintains regular contact with Kremlin intelligence counterparts from back in the States.
Mr Ratcliffe spent around four hours in Moscow while making the rare face-to-face meeting.
The US jet is believed to have taken off from Latvia’s Riga airport at 6.50am, landing in Moscow at 8.04am, according to Flightradar24.
It returned to Riga shortly before 6pm.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had no information about the plane and claimed there were no meetings planned this week.
Intelligence sources have previously suggested Vladimir Putin has been plotting to launch a large-scale military mobilisation on Ukraine and attacks on Nato.
Beth Sanner, a former US deputy director of national intelligence for mission integration, suggested Mr Ratcliffe could have been there to deliver a warning to Mr Putin.
She told the Wall Street Journal: “It could be to say: ‘We know what you are thinking about doing, and you better not.'”
The CIA has played a role in recent US-Russia detainee exchanges, including the April 2025 release of a US-Russian dual national Ksenia Karelina and the prisoner exchange which released US journalist Evan Gershkovich and US Marine veteran Paul Whelan.
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But the last known visit of this type came three months before catastrophe.
In November 2021, former CIA Director Williams Burns travelled to Moscow to speak directly to Mr Putin and warn him against an invasion of Ukraine.
Just a few months later, on February 24 2022, Russia invaded its neighbour.
Mr Ratcliffe is believed to be one of the highest-ranking US officials to visit Russia on record.
And while President Donald Trump met Mr Putin at a summit in Alaska last year, subsequent US-led attempts at peace have stalled.
Andy Burnham has tightened Britain’s military relationship with Ukraine during his first international trip to Kyiv.
The Prime Minister has handed top-secret missile blueprints to the country, while the UK has been handed a “goldmine” of intelligence data used by Kyiv to train battle-ready artificial intelligence by Volodymyr Zelensky.
But the bond between Kyiv and the UK – which, under Sir Keir Starmer, established the “coalition of the willing” – could plunge Britain further into Moscow’s sights.
On Monday night, top Kremlin adviser Andrei Fedorov shockingly admitted there may be “semi-military” action launched by “unknown sources” against British drone manufacturing factories.
Cyber attacks on Nato military infrastructure in Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania and drone activity above Germany have previously been linked to Russia.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday said he would “soon” reveal who was behind an apparent thwarted drone attack at Leipzig Airport.
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