Bit by bit, we continue to receive reports — most of them still speculative — about CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s mysterious visit to Moscow on Tuesday.

We hear that, during an exceedingly quick eight-hour turnaround, he may have been discussing with his counterparts in the intelligence community:

> An end to the destruction in Ukraine;
> Cessation of Russian assistance to Iran;
> Backing off on the Kremlin’s threats against NATO countries;
> Or, Heaven forbid, some new issue we civilians aren’t aware of as yet.

As for the other three, it could be any or all of them, or something entirely different. And it’s too soon to tell what, if anything, might have been accomplished by Ratcliffe’s endeavors. But thus far, there doesn’t seem to be much cause for optimism. Consider:

* Overnight, Russian drones and missiles struck four regions in Ukraine:

> Kyiv, where residential buildings, a school, medical facilities, and retail centers were hit;
> Odessa — ports, a grain elevator, fuel storage tanks, and a 16-story apartment building;
> Kharkiv — a shopping center; and
> Poltava and Kryvyi Rih — an oil refinery, steel works, an industrial site, and energy infrastructure.

* Today, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a news briefing:

“We have repeatedly warned that any British military installations and equipment in Ukraine and beyond its borders could be targeted in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory carried out using British weapons. We propose that the British leadership once again carefully analyse the situation and immediately, in the most resolute and unequivocal manner, abandon the hostile, aggressive line, which can only . . . create the risk of the conflict escalating to an entirely new level.” [Dmitry Antonov and Andrew Osborn, Reuters, August 27, 2026.]

My “spidey senses” have me leaning toward those threats against NATO.

If the two sides were still just discussing a ceasefire in Ukraine, the White House would most likely have sent its two most useless special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — not the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. And Donald Trump would also have sent an envoy — or he might have been inclined to pick up the phone to call Putin directly — if the subject were Iran. Those are both longer-term, ongoing issues.

But the threats against NATO have added a new, terrifying facet to an already turbulent situation.

The Wall Street Journal has said that the Russian military is carrying out mobilization readiness exercises in the Kaliningrad region: its territory in the Baltic that would be central to a conflict between Moscow and any NATO member countries. [Brendan Cole, Newsweek, August 26, 2026.]

And that immediately brought to my mind one little strip of land that I’ve written about at some length over the past year: the Suwalki Gap.

Remember Suwalki? It’s that narrow, strategically-located passage that forms the border between NATO members Poland and Lithuania, and also happens to be the only direct land passage between Russia’s vassal state of Belarus and its naval fleet at all-important Kaliningrad. (See my post: “9/15/25: The Suwalki Gap: The Most Important Strip of Land You’ve Probably Never Heard Of.”)

So, if the WSJ is correct in its assessment, then Poland, Lithuania — and, by extension, the rest of Western Europe as well — have every right to be making frantic preparations for a worst-case scenario. And under the terms of Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, the U.S. is similarly obligated to join in the defense of every other NATO member in the event of an attack.

That would certainly warrant a visit to the Kremlin by our top spy, who would be privy to the latest available intelligence. But my next question is:

* Where was our #1 diplomat — Secretary of State Marco Rubio?

Surely, whatever the subject of Ratcliffe’s meeting in Moscow, it was important enough to have benefited from the presence of the one individual charged with — and supposedly most capable of — keeping us out of World War III.

Is there something besides diplomacy taking place — something that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin don’t want to be directly involved in, or are deliberately being left out of, perhaps to provide deniability if the s*it hits the fan?

Or, once again, have I been reading too many John Le Carre novels?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/27/26