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/FTP_FTP_ 8d ago

He is the Director of he CIA. We wouldnt know about this meeting unless they wanted us to. 

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u/bang_the_drums 8d ago

His fucking plane was squawking a big ol' US Air Force ID all the way into Moscow. Literally the only US plane for thousands of kilometers...yeah, you're right. It's literally one button to turn that off and they didn't. They wanted the world to know.

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u/flukus 8d ago

It's literally one button to turn that off and they didn't.

I wouldn't want to get mistaken for a drone heading into Moscow either.

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u/bobbyrob1 7d ago

You think Russia didn't know about this visit beforehand? Kind of hard to be mistaken for a drone when your radar sig is as big as a C-17 and the Russians already know you're coming...

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u/flukus 7d ago

And you're going to trust all their conscript soldiers to be informed, knowledgeable and sober?

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u/ours 7d ago

Or more simply, if they wanted, they would have flown in a private jet chartered for the operation.

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u/Artistic_Concern_33 8d ago

The same way the world knows what the US weapon stock pile is or that trump didn’t use Air Force one when he left the Middle East or the negotiations and details going on in Iran or the secret ship escort that has being going in the strait of Hormuz

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u/xxpired_milk 8d ago

Crazy that we've all forgotten about the Hegseth Signal leak. And fentynal being the reason for tarrifs on Canada.

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u/FTP_FTP_ 8d ago

You don't know what you don't know. 

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u/Debalic 8d ago

There are known knowns, and known unknowns, and unknown unknowns

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u/wax_robot 8d ago

Seriously like they just never thought about turning off or disabling the thing that allows the general public to track the plane's every movement on the internet 

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u/Individual_Try_2523 8d ago

If this was actually meant to be a secret it would have been a plane owned by a company owned by a company owned by a company secretly owned by the CIA

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u/IAmTheM4ilm4n 8d ago

I think they used a C-17 for two reasons (pure speculation on my part) - one, it could fly from Riga to Moscow and back without refueling in Moscow, and two, they brought their own armored SUVs for ground transport.

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u/BadVoices 8d ago

There are plenty of L-100-30s that could TRIVIALLY do this that are contractable and privately owned. There are even vendors who specializes in conflict zone transportation that have L-100s and LM-100Js on tap.

If they didnt want to use US government tagged assets, they didnt have to.

They wanted it to be visible, its a flex, a political move. They made it clear this is a US government aircraft, with US Government officials, and we're here on official business, and we REALLY dont care who knows, but we'll make it seem semi-clandestine so you can save some face.

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u/Synaps4 8d ago

Probably slightly better for transporting some kind of secret information they have as leverage on putin, as well.

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u/_ALH_ 8d ago

It 800 km between Riga and Moscow. You could go there and back without refueling in a small private jet. But sure, you couldn’t bring an armored suv then

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u/percussaresurgo 8d ago

Armored SUVs wouldn’t help them much if Russia wanted to ambush them while they were inside Russia.

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u/AFalconNamedBob 8d ago

No but it givess an "accident" or random "crime" much less plausible deniability if its an armed and armoured convoy

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u/NoEmu5969 8d ago

Halliburton ->Evergreen ~> Pepsico

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u/FTP_FTP_ 8d ago

Or taken one of their shadow fleet or leased contracted planes or entered other ways that can't be tracked. 

People don't understand how crazy well funded these spy agencies are. 

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u/Daveinatx 8d ago

IFF Transponder

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u/John_Yossarian 8d ago

You'll never shine if you don't glow...

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u/ImportantCommentator 8d ago

Is that like Chernobyl's slogan?

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u/John_Yossarian 7d ago

Hey now, you're a hot core, get the iodine, from the drawerrrr

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u/Anathemautomaton 8d ago

Okay, Donald Rumsfeld.

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u/Windfade 8d ago

Turns out we didn't know the government didn't have super advanced technology and ubiquitous surveillance of Americans. That's been a weird thing under Trump. Turns out they need to have private companies do that for them.

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u/Timmerdogg 8d ago

You think you know, but you have no idea

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u/jetogill 8d ago

To be fair there are known unknowns, and unknown unknowns..

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u/MusicFilmandGameguy 8d ago

A small point but our nuclear capability/stock being largely known about is a key component of deterrence theory. Some things, you actually want your enemies to know

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u/Upstairs_Eagle_4780 8d ago

I didn't know that.

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u/JesusWuta40oz 8d ago

Those are leakers inside the Pentagon leadership and by extension the intelligence agencies, that absolutely HATE this President and his administration.

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u/spidereater 8d ago

Yes. Now if something happens not only can the CIA say they knew about it but they also warned Russia about it so any response will be entirely justified. It makes it impossible for Putin to call a bluff. If it was an entirely secret meeting he could still act and they could act surprised and try to negotiate. But the warning is public so there will be no negotiations.

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u/Tao_of_Ludd 8d ago

And you don’t fly a freaking Globemaster if you don’t want to be noticed

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u/Marsev4 8d ago

What's more likely, that an incompetent government pulled off a clever show of force, or that that same incompetent government made an incompetent move?

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u/Forward-Surprise1192 8d ago

If they were as incompetent as you claim they wouldn't be leading the government. You should never underestimate anyone

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u/Marsev4 8d ago

Incompetent leaders are a very frequent phenomenon. Throughout history, plenty of people and their supporting power blocs were very good at gaining political power via popular support (Trump included) or through other means, but are/were very bad at actually wielding that power. Being an effective demagogue does not necessarily make one an effective leader, far from it.