Air Force cargo plane touched down at a Moscow airport on Tuesday morning carrying a passenger neither government would name.
A U.S. diplomatic motorcade was waiting at the airport, according to reporting corroborated by The Moscow Times and IBTimes UK .
Ratcliffe and Naryshkin held a phone call on March 11, 2025, the first contact between a sitting CIA director and SVR chief in more than two years, in which both sides agreed to maintain regular contact aimed at "reducing confrontation" between Washington and Moscow rather than advancing any specific policy outcome.
Lithuania's Drone Warning Adds a Third Front The Moscow trip also follows weeks of warnings from a NATO member state that rarely gets top billing in U.S.-Russia coverage.
Ratcliffe's comes more than two and a half years into one Washington has spent over a year trying to end.
John Ratcliffe flew to Moscow aboard a U.S. military C-17 on Tuesday for meetings neither government would confirm, the first CIA director visit since William Burns warned Russia against invading Ukraine in 2021.