Washington Post: Ratcliffe secretly visited Moscow to warn Russia not to exploit perceived U.S. weakness from the Iran war, saying escalation in Ukraine would push Trump toward Zelensky

CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Moscow on August 25 — the first trip to Russia by the head of a U.S. intelligence agency since the start of the full-scale war. The visit was not announced in advance and took place under heightened secrecy. Journalists spent several hours trying to determine who had landed in Moscow aboard a U.S. military transport plane, while the Kremlin insisted no meetings with U.S. administration officials were planned for that week.