CIA chief’s Moscow trip was about Iran, not the Baltics, ex-Estonian president says

Former Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves, an influential voice in the European security debate, told Euronews he is skeptical that the US dispatched CIA Director John Ratcliffe to warn Russia against escalation, arguing that Washington remains more concerned about Iran.

“What is the real problem for the United States right now? The real problem is Iran, the fact that the Russians are giving targeting information to the Iranians,” he said.

“Those are real problems for the United States, and that would be sufficient to warrant the director of the CIA to go to Moscow to tell them to back off.”

US media reported that the CIA director was sent to warn Moscow against attacking NATO members, amid concerns that Russia could seek to test the alliance, potentially by targeting Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania.

The former Estonian president was equally skeptical about reports of an increased Russian military threat to the Baltic states.

“I think that’s all spin,” Ilves said.

“Why would they do anything in the Baltic states at this time?”

Ilves argued that Russia has little strategic reason to risk a direct confrontation with NATO.

If Moscow were looking to open another front, Ilves argued, Russia has several neighbors outside both NATO and the European Union where intervention would carry considerably less risk.

“There are so many countries that are on Russia’s border that are not in NATO, not in the EU,” he said. “They can do all kinds of things, from Armenia to Tajikistan.”