CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced visit to Moscow, CBS News White House correspondent Jennifer Jacobs reported.
The purpose of the visit remains unclear. Axios reported that Ratcliffe traveled to Moscow for talks with Russian officials, citing a source who said the U.S. had told Ukraine ahead of the trip that a high-level delegation was heading to Moscow and asked Kyiv to hold off on strikes.
CBS reported that Ratcliffe flew into Moscow aboard a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17, an aircraft that had earlier been reported to have landed at Vnukovo Airport on the morning of August 25.
The visit has not been officially announced.
According to one theory, Ratcliffe’s visit may be linked to the release of Charles Zimmerman, an American convicted in Russia, a claim Ksenia Sobchak reported on her Telegram channel Krovavaya Barynya (“Bloody Lady”) without citing a source.
A Russian court sentenced Zimmerman in 2026 to five years in prison for possessing weapons and ammunition found aboard his yacht. He had sailed from the U.S. to Sochi to meet a woman from Kazan he had met online, and did not disclose to border guards that he was carrying weapons he said he kept for self-defense.
The independent Russian investigative outlet iStories reported that Vladimir Putin signed two classified decrees on August 25, one of which may have been a pardon for Zimmerman.
Russia released former U.S. Marine Robert Gilman in early August. He had been serving his sentence in a prison colony in Voronezh.
President Donald Trump said Putin released Gilman for humanitarian reasons and asked for nothing in return, a move seen as possible groundwork for a new round of talks with the U.S. on peace in Ukraine.
According to the advocacy group Global Reach, five more Americans remain imprisoned in Russia.
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