Free Republic

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe paid an unannounced visit to Moscow yesterday, spending eight hours in the Russian capital before returning to the US. Though he visited the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that they had met – though Ratcliffe certainly spoke to his counterpart Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s SVR external intelligence service, and other top Russian security officials. The list of topics urgent enough to prompt the first personal visit of a US cabinet-level official to the Kremlin in six months is short. Ratcliffe could have been responding to reports of a planned Russian escalation...

The launch of the KNDS tank at the Eurosatory exhibition ​near Paris follows last week's decision by France and Germany to drop their joint FCAS fighter jet programme ⁠after months of disputes between Airbus (AIR.PA), and Dassault Aviation (AM.PA) KNDS said the CAPINT, for "intermediary capability", combines a chassis produced by its German ​division and a tank gun made by its French division. It aims to strengthen French Army capabilities, KNDS said, and will "pave the way" ​for the next-generation Main Ground Combat System. Initiated in 2017, the MGCS is intended to replace Germany's Leopard 2 and France's Leclerc tanks,...