Russia has denied holding any plans for an attack on NATO, after reports that the head of American intelligence flew to Moscow to warn the Kremlin against striking alliance territory.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said much of what had been published in recent days amounted to scare stories bearing no relation to reality or to Russian intentions, the Interfax news agency reported.
He repeated that the invasion of Ukraine was being waged to guarantee Russia’s security and interests, and said Moscow faced an aggressive policy from European countries. Any argument to the contrary was a distortion, he added.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced trip to the Russian capital on August 25, the first known visit by a US spy chief since William Burns met Vladimir Putin in November 2021.
That meeting took place three months before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the purpose of Ratcliffe’s visit was to caution Moscow against attacking NATO members. CBS News reported that he also pressed Russia over Iran, warning of further sanctions if the Strait of Hormuz did not reopen to shipping.
US President Donald Trump played down the trip, telling a radio interviewer it was “sort of semi-routine”. He denied that Ratcliffe had gone to Moscow to set out red lines on NATO or to raise sanctions on Tehran.
The Kremlin confirmed that Ratcliffe had held talks with Russian intelligence officials but did not meet Putin. “Of course, President Putin is immediately informed of everything,” Peskov said, declining to say what had been discussed.
Washington told Kyiv that a senior delegation would be travelling to Russia and asked Ukraine to suspend strikes on Moscow, St Petersburg and some northern regions until it had left, a senior Ukrainian official told the Associated Press.
The visit follows US intelligence assessments reported in early August that Putin might order a limited ground incursion or a cyber operation against a NATO member to test the alliance’s resolve.
European services have reached similar conclusions, several of them warning that Russia could be capable of a large-scale attack on NATO territory by 2029, an assessment that underpins the European Union’s Readiness 2030 drive and its accompanying ReArm Europe plan.
Putin has accused the alliance of preparing for war on Russia, and Moscow has repeatedly called talk of an attack on NATO nonsense invented to justify higher military spending.
The 32 allies named Russia a long-term threat to Euro-Atlantic security in the Ankara Declaration adopted at their summit on July 8.
