The director of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, traveled to Moscow in a secretive visit to warn Russia against any attack on NATO member states, according to US media reports published on Thursday. The Kremlin dismissed the accounts as fabrications.
The reported trip took place as Russia and Ukraine intensified long-range drone and missile strikes against each other, deepening concern in Western capitals about the risk of a wider confrontation involving the alliance.
Russian officials rejected the reporting. “A lot of this kind of scare-story material is being published right now,” a Kremlin representative said, adding that it had “nothing to do with reality and nothing to do with the intentions of the Russian Federation.”
The details of what Ratcliffe conveyed, and to whom, were not disclosed. Neither the CIA nor the White House confirmed the meeting publicly. The reported visit points to continued back-channel contact between Washington and Moscow despite the war in Ukraine.
The warning would come at a tense moment. Both sides have escalated aerial attacks in recent months, with Ukrainian drones reaching deep into Russian territory and Russian strikes hitting Ukrainian cities. The pattern has driven repeated Russian threats against European states, echoing earlier warnings tied to expanding drone warfare.
Separately, US defense policy chief Elbridge Colby was preparing to meet NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, part of ongoing alliance consultations over the security situation on Europe’s eastern flank.
The reported diplomacy unfolded alongside a domestic policy development. The Trump administration is weighing a new round of tariffs on semiconductors, Politico reported on Thursday, citing eight people familiar with the discussions.
The proposal could extend duties beyond microchips to products that rely on them, including laptops, gaming consoles and data center servers, the report said. The move would broaden the range of technology goods subject to import taxes.
Washington has not formally announced the tariff plan or the Moscow visit. Russian officials continued to reject the escalation narrative as US media speculation.