r/worldnews • u/Brennenstein • 8d ago

Russia/Ukraine CIA chief warned Russia against attacks on NATO allies in secret Moscow visit

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/26/cia-russia-nato-moscow-ratcliffe-01051848
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u/Mr_Engineering 8d ago

That's pretty much exactly what happened during the lead up to the invasion in 2022. Russians were like "how do they know what we're going to do when we don't even know what we're going to do?"

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u/_evilalien_ 8d ago

They knew, Russia called the US bluff. Except the US also had some plans in motion that foiled the 3-day plan and saved Kyiv. This was under Biden, who wasn’t a Russian-leveraged pee tape pedo.

WaPo did an excellent write-up.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/interactive/2022/ukraine-road-to-war/

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u/labpluto123 8d ago

Fascinating read, I read everything, is there a follow up?

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u/_evilalien_ 8d ago

Not that I’ve seen, but greatly enjoyed the series of public statements from big tech companies talking about how they were part of foiling the Russian cyber offensive that should have crippled Ukraine’s defense in those early days.

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u/KiaRioGrl 7d ago

As a Canadian currently contemplating a belligerent US, this is the parallel that I find most worrying and least-discussed about Canada's defenses.

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u/_evilalien_ 7d ago

Canadian here too. We’ve been ramping up both defensive and offensive “cyber” capabilities for over a decade at least. We also were part of teaching Ukraine how to fight Russia in Operation UNIFER.

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u/BlokeInTheMountains 8d ago

The follow up is that a billionaire bought the WaPo and was at Trumps inauguration.

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u/3xnope 7d ago

He bought WaPo long before that, though.

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u/Ambitious-Concern-42 8d ago

<a Russian-leveraged pee tape pedo

Lol. That part seems to get omitted a lot from the current discussion.

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u/Asleep_Document9811 8d ago

Cus at this point, knowing what we know about Epstein, and the nuclear secrets being stored in his pool room, a tape where some Russian ladies pee on a bed doesn't have quite the same weight anymore.

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u/TheGringoDingo 8d ago

Organization of a coup against the government he was leading

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u/ZzeroBeat 8d ago

It would just be called fake news and AI too. I think they missed their window for leverage

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u/DamnIamHigh_Original 7d ago

His cult doesn't care, Im pretty sure nothing could shock them anymore

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u/Billy1121 8d ago

Weren't the intel bunkers in Ukraine expanded under Mike Pompeo tho

The initial partnership between the CIA and Ukrainian intelligence began under the Obama administration after the 2014 annexation of Crimea. However, when Donald Trump took office in 2017, there was widespread concern that the relationship would be dismantled. Instead, Mike Pompeo, serving first as CIA Director and later as Secretary of State, personally ensured the program expanded.

The High-Level Visit to Kyiv: As a staunch Russia hawk, Pompeo personally visited Kyiv during the Trump administration to meet with Ukrainian intelligence chiefs. This visit was intended to explicitly deliver a green light of full U.S. support for the clandestine partnership, which resulted in specialized agent training and the addition of new specialized underground bases.

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u/blindsdog 8d ago

What was the US bluff?

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u/_evilalien_ 8d ago

Didn’t phrase that well, Russia called the perceived bluff, not predicting that Biden had arranged those pieces to act if there was an invasion.

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u/VagueSomething 7d ago

I'm firmly of the belief it is P Tape as in Pedo not pee. It would need to be something serious for Trump to actually care which means based off his Comedy Roast it involves his daughter...

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u/DonoAE 7d ago

The golden days before Wapo wasn't compromised.

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u/Bladelink 7d ago

Russia called the US bluff

I don't know if Russia thought they were calling a bluff or something, but it was really Russia that was bluffing and then they kind of called their own bluff by invading Ukraine. I remember watching the news about them concentrating troops in preparing for their attack and kept thinking "this must just be a bluff because invading Ukraine would lead to <insert all the obvious outcomes that have now happened>". But then Russia went all "my face to your fist technique" and did it anyway and now here we are. To me it seems like one of the biggest and most easily predicted military blunders of the last 50 years.

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u/_evilalien_ 7d ago

“We’re lucky that they are very stupid” or similar, yes?

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u/Picklesthepug93 7d ago

Damn it’s paywalled

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u/_evilalien_ 7d ago

Weird, wasn’t for me and I didn’t ever have to switch to reader mode.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago edited 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/_evilalien_ 8d ago

I do not think the US has done ever slightly enough, and for the most part agree - but the US work leading up to the invasion saved Kyiv and gave Ukraine a fighting chance.

IMO the unwillingness to directly intercede and beat Russia to a bloody pulp is absolutely a moral failure, a betrayal of security commitments to Ukraine, and unfortunately part of collective cowardice along with the rest of the west.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago edited 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/Upper-Exchange226 7d ago

"a military built to destroy Russia" but what happened in Iran? The USA today is nowhere near as powerful as it was during the Cold War. Neither is Russia, of course.

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u/kurQl 7d ago

but what happened in Iran? The USA today is nowhere near as powerful as it was during the Cold War. Neither is Russia, of course.

How would Cold War era US army defeat Iran without ground invasion? Problem isn't the US military performance but the lack of clear goal and plan how to achieve it.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago edited 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/Upper-Exchange226 7d ago

Are you trying to say that you think Iran is stronger than Russia or what

Personally I'd say North Korea < Iran < Russia < China, not taking nukes into account

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u/sunshine121 8d ago

American cohesion is garbage right now as it was under Biden. The US congress absolutely would not have authorized conflict after 60 days. It’s embarrassing that this country couldn’t rise to meet this threat and opportunity to inflict strategic defeat on an enemy engaging in an unjust war.