THE head of the United States Central Intelligence Agency travelled to the Russian capital Moscow for unannounced talks, according to US media.

Neither Washington or Moscow have confirmed the nature of the visit by CIA director John Ratcliffe or who he was due to meet.

There has been no response for comment from Moscow or Washington.

Footage posted on social media showed the C-17 transport plane approaching Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport on Tuesday.

Social media footage also allegedly showed a diplomatic motorcade travelling through Moscow.

Ahead of the trip, the US told Ukraine that a senior delegation would be travelling to Moscow and asked Kiev to suspend strikes until they had left, a senior Ukrainian official told the US CBS network.

The trip is thought to be Mr Ratcliffe’s first trip to Russia as CIA director, although he has maintained contact with his intelligence counterparts in Moscow.

John Foreman, who served as a British military attache to Moscow between 2019 and 2022, told Radio 4’s PM programme on Tuesday that the visit could be focused on “escalation management” given speculation that recent drone activity in Germany could be Russia-linked.

He said: “The Americans don’t normally send such a high-ranking official to Moscow unannounced at short notice unless something is up.”

Geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar posted to Telegram that Mr Ratcliffe reportedly met with the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Sergey Naryshkin and discussed the Nato military alliance, Iran, Israel and tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Mr Escobar reported that Mr Ratcliffe then met briefly Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Mr Putin met US President Donald Trump at a summit in Alaska last year but the meeting did not lead to a breakthrough.

Subsequent US-led peace talks between Russia and Ukraine appear to have stalled.