Portnikov Revealed The Real Purpose Of The CIA Director's Visit To Moscow
- 26.08.2026, 8:35
The move was taken in the interests of the United States.
No official statements were made regarding the purpose of the CIA director’s visit to Russia have been made, but it can be assumed that such a step was taken in the interests of the United States, reported Vitaly Portnikov.
John Ratcliffe arrived in Moscow to ask Putin to influence Iran to stop “making life difficult” for the United States, rather than to discuss the terms for ending the war in Ukraine. The political analyst shared his perspective on the situation in one of his analytical videos on the channel YouTube.
The columnist explained why the CIA director might have come to Moscow: “The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency may approach Putin first and foremost as an ally of the Islamic Republic, in order to persuade the Russian president to at least help ensure that Iran does not deliberately escalate the situation in the Persian Gulf in the coming months, so that there would be no shock to the oil market that could lead to a serious increase in fuel prices in the U.S., and so that the “neither war nor peace” situation—which Trump has established in his relations with the Islamic Republic—would continue at least until October – November 2026.”
“In my view, this may be a more realistic goal of the CIA director’s visit to the Russian capital than talks about ending the Russian-Ukrainian war or preventing an escalation in Europe. Beyond this assumption lies the question: what exactly can the Americans offer the Russians so that the Russians can restrain the Iranians, who are not under the absolute influence of the Russian Federation?” Portnikov emphasized.
“Here, we can say that the Americans are more likely to make concessions to Moscow than Putin is to make concessions to the Americans on critical issues. These could be concessions that lead the U.S. to lift certain sanctions against Russia, while the Russians would be unable to influence Tehran in any way,” the journalist concluded.