The Kremlin played down reports of a CIA spy inside Russia's presidential a...
MOSCOW/LONDON - The Kremlin played down reports of a CIA spy inside Russia’s presidential administration, but said an official identified by Russian media as the likely U.S. mole had worked there although he did not have access to President Vladimir Putin.
Two sources familiar with U.S. monitoring of Russian activities confirmed to Reuters that such a CIA informant did exist inside the Russian government and had been extracted and brought to the United States. It cited unnamed Russian law enforcement officials as saying Moscow had initially opened an investigation into his suspected murder in Montenegro before concluding he was alive and living abroad.
But now that the story had become public it was highly likely the U.S. government would have to make serious efforts to protect the defector, the source, who did not dispute the mole was Oleg Smolenkov, said.Asked about the matter, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Smolenkov had worked in the Russian presidential administration but had been fired in 2016/17.
“I can’t confirm that ... I don’t know whether he was an agent. I can only confirm that there was such a person in the presidential administration, who was later sacked.
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