Footage: CIA Chief in a High-Level Backchannel Visit to Moscow Alongside Vatican Officials

The CIA personnel in Moscow alongside Vatican officials is raising concerns.


What’s brewing behind the scenes? Something significant may be unfolding as CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a rare, unannounced visit to Moscow on August 25, 2026, meeting with Russian intelligence counterparts at Vnukovo Airport. The secretive trip—which bypassed a meeting with Vladimir Putin—prompted Washington to ask Ukraine for a brief localized halt on regional drone strikes

CIA Director John Ratcliffe of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) travelled to Moscow for unannounced talks, the BBC's US news partner CBS has reported.

He made a rare, unannounced visit to Moscow on August 25, 2026, meeting with Russian intelligence counterparts at Vnukovo Airport.

Neither Washington or Moscow have confirmed the nature of the visit or who he was due to meet.

According to a report, the secretive trip—which bypassed a meeting with Vladimir Putin—prompted Washington to ask Ukraine for a brief localized halt on regional drone strikes.

A U.S. military aircraft transported the CIA delegation to Moscow's Vnukovo airport on Tuesday, August 25, before departing later that day.

Ratcliffe held discussions with Russian security and intelligence officials, marking a rare high-level physical presence of a U.S. spy chief in the Russian capital.

U.S. officials requested that Ukraine temporarily suspend air strikes targeting Moscow, St. Petersburg, and select northern zones while the delegation was in transit.


Flight tracking data confirmed a large US military aircraft travelled to Russia from the US via Latvia on Tuesday. It departed later on Tuesday.

Footage posted on social media showed the C-17 transport plane approaching Moscow's Vnukovo international airport.

It departed Riga airport at 05:50 GMT and appeared to have landed in the Russian capital at around 07:04 GMT, according to data from FlightRadar24. It returned to Riga shortly before 17:00 GMT.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe

Russian Putin calls for continued massive strikes on Ukraine’s military-industrial infrastructure

Russian President has called for continued massive strikes on Ukraine’s military-industrial infrastructure in response to the Ukrainian terrorists attacks against Russia.


“Massive group strikes on the infrastructure of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex must be continued,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said while visiting an auxiliary command post of the Joint Group of Forces.

Vladimir Putin stated that Russian forces have fully completed the "liberation" of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) and are continuing to destroy Ukrainian Armed Forces units in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), as well as in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

According to a report by the Sputnik, Putin confirmed that Russian forces have liberated 133 towns and liberated, along with more than 3,000 square kilometers of territory in the Donbass and Novorossiya since the start of 2026.

Konstantinovka is one of most important logistics and defensive hubs in northern Donbass.


Together with Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, it forms a heavily fortified belt that supports Ukrainian operations across the region.

The American led NATO war against Russia in Ukraine have not been able to crush or for for Moscow to retreat from its special military operations in Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Ministry calls US and Israeli attack on Iran an 'IRRESPONSIBLE MOVE'

 The Foreign Ministry of Russia Federation has called US and Israeli attack on Iran an 'IRRESPONSIBLE MOVE'

The ministry described the US and Israeli bombing of Iran as a premeditated and unprovoked act of armed aggression

According to the statement, the responsibility for the negative consequences of this man-made crisis lies entirely with the US and Israel. The motives behind the US and Israeli attacks on Iran have nothing to do with the preservation of non-proliferation

"The US and Israel cannot fail to understand that their actions in escalating the situation in the Middle East push the region towards acquiring new weapons."

Moscow expresses concern over the serial nature of destabilizing US strikes on the international legal foundations of the global order.

Russia demands the immediate return of the situation around Iran to a diplomatic resolution.

Moscow is ready to assist in finding peaceful solutions in the Middle East based on international law and mutual respect. The statement said.

U.S, Israeli joint military strikes against Iran have been met with immediate retaliatory strikes on US military bases in the middle east including the headquarters in Bahrain.

Source: Sputnik 

Russia calls on US to stop occupying Syria, Israel to end attacks

Moscow has called on Washington to stop occupying Syria territory and Israel to end attacks in the Arab Nation.
Vasily Nebenzia who is the Russia’s permanent representative to the United Nations made the call on the United States to end the occupation of Syria and return oil fields to the government.

He also called on Israel to stop airstrikes on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic.

Nebenzia said these during the UN Security Council session drawing the attention of members of the United Nations and the Security Council to reports of the Western press about a widespread environmental catastrophe that threatens northeastern Syria and Iraq because of the barbaric methods of extracting oil in the fields that the United States claims to defend.” .

“We repeat our call to the United States of America to immediately end its occupation of Syria and return its national resources to a government that is able to protect the environment.”

According to the Russian diploma, Syria is losing about $40 million in revenue every month.

“We reiterate our call to Israel to stop airstrikes on Syrian lands, and to end the foreign occupation of Syria, as well as attempts to dismantle Syria into parts.”

Nebenzia stressed the need to solve the internal problems of Syria through a comprehensive and wide dialogue.

About 90 percent of Syrian oil production is concentrated on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, which was previously the main source of terrorist income for the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS/Daesh).