Several interesting things are happening today involving Russia and its threats against NATO countries. Let’s start with comments by Russia former foreign minister which were directed at the United Kingdom.
Russia’s former Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Fedorov warned Monday that factories in Britain producing drones for Ukraine could be targeted by “semi-military” or “unknown” forces in response to the U.K.’s expanding military support for Kyiv.
Fedorov told the BBC’s Newsnight show on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was under pressure from public opinion and the Russian media to take action against Britain.
“Something might happen with enterprises, with factories, which are producing drones for Ukraine,” he told the BBC. “They could be attacked — not by Russia, but from unknown sources.”
He said he could not “exclude 100% that there might be some semi-military” action, noting the possibility of cyberattacks — also by “unknown sources, not official level, of course” — or unspecified political measures against Britain.
The backstory here is that Britain’s new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, just flew to Kyiv yesterday to show his strong support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. Specifically, the UK announced it would allow Ukraine to build Storm Shadow missiles locally. Storm Shadows are joint, UK-French cruise missiles which are very effective at taking out military targets. Russia is clearly worried about this.
Just hours after Prime Minister Andy Burnham of Britain arrived in Kyiv on Monday for his first foreign trip since taking office, Russia issued yet another darkly worded statement.
Britain has been “hell bent on pouring oil on a fire and plotting to prevent any kind of peace process,” Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said, as Mr. Burnham affirmed his support for Ukraine in a speech and placed red roses at a military cemetery.
Mr. Burnham, 35 days into his tenure as prime minister, appeared unfazed. He announced the delivery of technical blueprints that will allow Ukraine to assemble long-range missiles. Asked to respond to Mr. Peskov’s comments, he shot back: “Who started the fire? That’s the question, isn’t it?”
Mr. Peskov’s comments were the latest in an escalating series of rebukes and threats from Russia aimed at the British government and its new prime minister, Mr. Burnham. Last week, Moscow warned Britain that the use of British-made drones in attacks on Russia would lead to “consequences for which it will have to answer.”
The other thing you need to know is that recently some drones were found at an airport in Leipzig, Germany, which is home to large Ukrainian transport planes used to move supplies from Europe to Ukraine. Those drones had faulty detonators but were seen by many as likely of Russian origin. Also, the Wall Street Journal has reported that Russia appears to be gearing up to test the resolve of various NATO countries.
With all that in mind, today the CIA Director made a surprise visit to Moscow for reasons unknown.
John Ratcliffe reportedly arrived in the Russian capital earlier on Tuesday. Neither Washington or Moscow have confirmed the nature of the visit or who he was due to meet.
In-person talks between high-level American and Russian officials are rare…
John Foreman, who served as a British military attaché to Moscow between 2019 and 2022, told Radio 4’s PM programme that the visit could be focused on “escalation management” given speculation recent drone activity in Germany could be linked to Russia.
He said: “The Americans don’t normally send such a high ranking official to Moscow unannounced at short notice unless something is up.”
The Wall Street Journal suggests some kind of important message from the Trump administration is being delivered.
Analysts said Ratcliffe could meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to deliver a warning. “It could be to say, ‘We know what you are thinking about doing, and you better not,’” said Beth Sanner, a former U.S. deputy director of national intelligence for mission integration. “It could also be about the Iran ceasefire and putting someone else in the discussion,” she said, adding Ratcliffe might also touch upon the Kremlin’s support for Iran following a new U.S. sanctions campaign against the regime…
“The U.S. has supported Ukraine since the very beginning of the war and from the point of view of our state, it’s an opponent, but colleagues from intelligence agencies like these can discuss a large number of issues more freely than politicians,” said Rustam Churyakov, general director of Moscow-based intelligence think tank Laboratory Intelligence Express…
“Many issues have accumulated between Russia and the U.S., and it’s not just Ukraine, it’s Latin America, Iran, China,” Churyakov said.
Bottom line, we don’t know why Ratcliffe is there, only that it’s likely to be a pretty high-level discussion, possibly a meeting with Putin. And the fact that the CIA director is there instead of Trump himself just picking up the phone suggests we’re trying to keep personalities and politics out of this. That could be something to do with the threats against the UK and Europe. It could be in reference to a prisoner swap. It could be in reference to the war with Iran.
If anyone posts a story offering a new and compelling theory for the visit I’ll post it below but for now my headline is an actual question because, so far, the real reason hasn’t leaked to the media.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are once again respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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