Putin canceled meeting with CIA chief after reading his message

Russian outlet Agentstvo reported September 1, citing an anonymous source close to the Kremlin, that Vladimir Putin had initially been open to meeting CIA Director John Ratcliffe during his Moscow visit but called it off after learning what Ratcliffe intended to say. The message reportedly argued Russia's military and economic position is deteriorating and that a deal to end the war against Ukraine would be more advantageous now than later.

Ratcliffe instead met Russian intelligence chiefs Sergei Naryshkin and reportedly Alexander Bortnikov, after which the substance was relayed to Putin, who declined the personal meeting. The source characterized the Kremlin's reaction as viewing the message as wildly out of touch with the battlefield reality Moscow believes it controls.

The visit has drawn conflicting explanations: Trump called it 'semi-routine,' the Wall Street Journal linked it to warnings about Russian conscription plans and a possible test of NATO, and Axios reported Ratcliffe floated a Trump-Zelenskyy-Putin trilateral. Ukrainian officials have said the war itself was not the visit's main topic.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.