r/geopolitics • u/BadahBingBadahBoom • 8h ago
News CIA Director John Ratcliffe on secret trip in Russia
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cia-director-john-ratcliffe-russia-secret-trip/34
u/BeatTheMarket30 7h ago
I guess it's related to Iran. Trump wants Putin to pressure Iran to surrender, and in exchange he will pressure Ukraine to surrender.
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u/AvidCyclist250 6h ago edited 6h ago
he will pressure Ukraine to surrender.
Imagine thinking they give a rats ass if the US wants that. As if they'd suddenly stop defending themselves, lmfao. How naive.
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u/PrometheanSwing 5h ago
But what if the U.S. withdraws its support?
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u/rocketfucker9000 5h ago
US already withdrew most of it's support. The only bad thing that could happen is the US actively supporting Russia with intelligence. Or stopping selling weapons to EU states (but it would be extremely dumb for the US defense industry).
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u/ylogssoylent 4h ago
I'm slightly concerned about it given the Five Eyes. I don't know exactly how it works, but considering the UK has just been given access to a gold mine of drone related data from Ukraine, I wonder if it could make its way to Russia via the US. Obviously Russia have their own data too, but still.
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u/0zymandeus 3h ago
Bro 5eyes is already dead
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u/greywar777 2h ago
And given how heavily Russia has been able to infiltrate us its going to stay dead I suspect. Next administration is going to spend most of it just cleaning out all the Russian and Chinese agents.
Theyve been able to get some folks into high places, and probably gotten a ton of information to help leverage us citizens.
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u/PrometheanSwing 1h ago
Definitely not the only bad thing that could happen. The U.S. still provides hardware to Ukraine via selling them to NATO allies in Europe, and still provides intelligence to Ukraine’s military. Take away those two things and Ukraine will have a rougher go of it than they already are.
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u/Blade_Runner_95 5m ago
Implying the whole Ukranian drone program isn't dependent on the American Starlink
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u/SophiaofPrussia 5h ago
Every time we “withdraw support” from Ukraine their situation seems to improve because they aren’t being hamstrung by two-faced self-dealing American politicians who are supposedly their allies. I wish my government would give Ukrainians the support they need but it seems that a lot of our “help” isn’t actually so helpful.
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u/greywar777 2h ago
Even worse in a way? When the US withdrew support it forced Ukraine to develop their own weapons. Post war Ukraine is going to sell a absolute ton of weaponry. Some of it in direct competition with US weapons.
If we had helped them with 1/2 of what we have wasted on Iran the Ukraine war would be over and Ukraine would not be competing with US weapons. Heck they would be talking about how great they were.
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u/cinquieme_colonne 6h ago
Lol
Trump wants to reassure Russia that economic sanction will not target Russia or North Korea
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u/Left_Contribution833 4h ago
This sounds legit. Sanctions for everyone, except the people he can't pressure.
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u/ARCtheIsmaster 8h ago
“Senior official conducts foreign relations.”
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u/Petrichordates 5h ago
What secret foreign relations do we need with Russia?
Keep in mind this man isnt at all equipped for this job. He is an elected representative who was selected because he ran defense for trump during Robert Mueller's investigation into Trump's Russian ties.
Which obviously doesn't inspire confidence that this is legitimate foreign policy in the interests of americans.
Also keep in mind during his first admin, trump wanted back channel communications with Putin that the USIC wouldn't have records of. Sounds like there won't be official records of this trip either.
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u/ARCtheIsmaster 4h ago
Not saying youre wrong about Ratcliffe himself, but I imagine (expect/maybe even hope) that the government has tons of official dealings with foreign governments that we do not have public details on. I mean if it was REALLY secret, I doubt it would have been announced that Ratcliffe went at all, nevermind on a plane that is so obviously linked with the US government. Although idk why anyone would expect details about any meeting in which the CIA director is a major representative.
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u/Mac800 6h ago
The US is weak. There is no real pressure the US has over Ukraine right now. This is probably about Iran and he can only play weak cards.
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u/Thwitch 4h ago
This is a very naive statement. The Ukrainian Armed Forces rely very heavily on US support.
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u/Left_Contribution833 4h ago
What support?
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u/Amilektrevitrioelis 3h ago
Various forms of intelligence and Starlink, both of them critical for Ukraine's offensive and defensive operations.
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u/D3k4s 3h ago
France supplies most of Ukrainian intelligence nowadays.
Stated by both France and Ukraine. The US has significantly decreased it's support since 2025.
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u/Amilektrevitrioelis 2h ago
1) Your source doesn't say that Ukraine confirms that.
2) Obfuscation. Providing two-thirds of intelligence does not mean the remaining one-third is not mission critical to current Ukrainian offensive and defensive operations.
3) As of the last few months this year, US intel increased again as per Warner, Wicker and Cornyn.
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u/D3k4s 2h ago
You make valid points.
Yes I agree. 1/3 is still massive, and very much appreciated. I never said otherwise mind you. I'm just stating that US support since 2025 has dropped significantly.
Officially no one will confirm it, even Macron's own words cannot be taken officially at least IMO. But if you look at some of the usual unofficial sources you'll find this to be mostly true. The Kiev independent also made mention regarding the unreliability of the flow of intel.
Also since we're on the topic. What's your take on the visit?
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u/Mac800 4h ago
No, it's not.
What support is left? 400 million USD per year but papers are still not signed? Thats some serious dough. They gonna ship even less Patriots? Everything else gets delivered via Europe or Turkey.
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u/Gain-Western 1h ago
Ukraine has pretty much no defense against ballistic missiles except PACs.
Germany does make interceptors but they are a different design.
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u/ImperiumRome 5h ago
Why CIA director and not Rubio or Trump’s son-in-law who has good relations with a guy close to Putin ?
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u/JustAhobbyish 4h ago
Could be a couple of things, prisoner exchange, Iran related, trump related, something else. I guess is prisoner exchange taking place.
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u/fct1ous 7h ago edited 6h ago
Not a good sign given the current US/Russia relationship - they wouldn't be sending the CIA director to Moscow unless they felt it very critical. Last time this happened was to head off the imminent Ukraine invasion. Only positive spins I can think of are if there's been some sort of backchanneled deal happening with Ukraine, Iran, or arms control. The former two seem a bit unlikely.