Donald Trump (Photo: Evan Vucci / Reuters)
“We had good talks with him. He has no intention of attacking NATO territory,” Trump said, referring to his discussions with Putin. The president made these remarks during a conversation with reporters in the Oval Office, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Earlier on Thursday, Trump stated in a telephone interview with Axios that no such strike would take place and that CIA Director Ratcliffe had not been sent to Moscow to deliver any specific message. “Ratcliffe meets with his Russian counterpart once every six months or once a year. They have a very good relationship. There were no messages, nor was there anything unusual,” Trump said in the interview.
Following the arrival in Moscow this week, on August 25, of John Ratcliffe, director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a number of Western media outlets, including Politico, The Wall Street Journal, and ABC News, citing sources, reported that the purpose of the visit was to warn Russia against escalating the conflict with the U.S.’s NATO allies.
According to Politico’s sources, Ratcliffe also used his trip to the Russian capital to pressure Russia to reduce its military and economic support for Iran.
On Wednesday, Trump, commenting on Ratcliffe’s trip to Moscow, dismissed as untrue a number of speculations that had appeared in the press regarding the content of his talks with Russian officials. In the same statement, Donald Trump noted that during his visit, Ratcliffe did not discuss either potential threats from Russia to NATO countries—in particular, an “attack on England”—or issues related to sanctions against Iran. According to Trump, the main topic was the war in Ukraine.
