Since the American CIA chief John Ratcliffe made an unannounced trip to Moscow in late August to meet with his Russian intelligence counterparts, a number of theories regarding the purpose of his visit have circulated. In the weeks since, a consensus has emerged that Ratcliffe made his dash to the Kremlin to warn Russian officials against carrying out any escalatory provocation against Nato territory. 

Many have assumed that Ratcliffe’s warning related to a potential attack on one of the Baltic states or Poland – all of whom share a border with Russia. But what if Vladimir Putin had other Nato territories in mind, further west in the Mediterranean?

An intriguing report has surfaced in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo linking Ratcliffe’s trip to Moscow with warnings supposedly issued by the CIA to European governments about the possibility of future drone attacks against Spain, Italy and France. The paper’s source for the story appears to be an anonymous individual close to Lithuania’s ministry of defence, who claims that the American intelligence service briefed them shortly after Ratcliffe’s August trip.

It is undeniable that the risk to Europe of greyzone attacks from Moscow is growing

It is undeniable that the risk to Europe of greyzone attacks........

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