CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Russia aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 for high-level meetings in Moscow today, according to sources who spoke to CBS News White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs.
A U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft, tail number 07-7181, landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport after flying directly from Riga, Latvia. A motorcade of vehicles bearing U.S. diplomatic plates was also spotted in Moscow.
Flight data indicate that the military transport plane was recently in Camp Springs, Maryland, home to Joint Base Andrews, which supports travel by the president and other senior U.S. government officials. It appears to be Ratcliffe’s first known trip to Russia as CIA director, though he has maintained contact with Russian intelligence counterparts. It is also the first publicly observed U.S. Air Force C-17 flight to Russia since May 2020, when a C-17 delivered American-supplied ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CIA has played a role in recent U.S.-Russia detainee exchanges. Ratcliffe personally negotiated the April 2025 release of U.S.-Russian dual national Ksenia Karelina. The agency was also involved in the 2024 prisoner swap that freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Marine veteran Paul Whelan.
