US says reports of CIA mole in Kremlin put lives at risk – World

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced angrily on Tuesday news reports detailing the secret exfiltration of a CIA mole that had operated at the highest levels of the Kremlin, saying such reports could put lives at risk .

According to reports, the informant confirmed the intelligence of the USA. UU. That President Vladimir Putin led Russia's interference in the US presidential elections. UU. In 2016, he tensed superpower relations and threw a cloud over Donald Trump's amazing victory.

According to multiple news reports citing sources from the US spy community, the informant was taken from Russia two years ago amid fears that he was at risk of exposure, depriving Washington of an essential view of the activities and thinking of Putin

Pompeo, who was director of the CIA in 2017, questioned the reports without being specific, but did not deny his general momentum.

"I have seen that report. The report is materially inaccurate," he said, speaking at the White House.

"As a former CIA director, I don't talk about things like this very often," he said.

"Only on the occasions when there is something that I think puts people at risk, or the reports are so heinous that they create a huge risk for the United States of America, that I even comment in the way I just did."

Kremlin foreign policy assistant

Russian media identified the suspect as Oleg Smolenkov, an assistant to Putin's main foreign policy advisor, Yury Ushakov. According to reports, Smolenkov once served at the Russian embassy in Washington.

His position in the Kremlin could have given him access to high-level national security information and probably provided the United States intelligence with essential information about Putin, intelligence experts said.

"If these reports … are accurate, I think that really speaks of a tremendous intelligence victory by the CIA," former CIA spokesman Ned Price told MSNBC.

On the other hand, Price said, exfiltration would be "a strategic loss for us over time, since we will lose that knowledge."

Moscow: alleged mole was fired

Moscow sought Tuesday to minimize the news. Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the US reports were "rather in the pulp fiction genre."

He said the alleged mole worked in the Kremlin and had no direct contact with the Russian leader.

"I don't know if he was an agent or not. I can only confirm that he worked for the presidential administration and that he was fired," Peskov said.

"His position was not in the senior official category," Peskov said. "This position does not require contacts with the president as such."

Smuggled to security in 2017

CNN reported Monday that the CIA informant, whom he did not mention, was smuggled out of Russia in 2017, amid fears that his identity would be discovered amidst the ongoing investigation into Russia's interference in the elections. .

Later reports from Russian media said Smolenkov disappeared with his family while on vacation in Montenegro in June 2017.

Since then there has been no news of him, but real estate records show that Oleg and Antonina Smolenkov bought a house in Stafford, Virginia, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of the U.S. capital on June 5, 2018.

The house is located on a large plot with a well-kept lawn surrounded by forest. A neighbor who refused to be identified confirmed that the Russians lived in the house and were good neighbors, but that they had left the night before.

The US media, citing intelligence sources, said the CIA informant in the Kremlin was crucial to the US intelligence conclusion at the end of 2016 that Russia was actively interfering in the US elections in favor of Trump.

While sources were not given, the strength of the evaluation pointed out to some that the intelligence of the USA. UU. I could have a spy in the Kremlin.

The fear of the exhibition began in 2016

The New York Times reported that the CIA initially offered to draw the source at the end of 2016 for fear of media exposure, but he refused, citing family problems.

Months later, the informant relented when the Department of Justice and the United States Congress opened investigations into Russian interference that could expose the sources and methods of intelligence of the United States.

"As soon as an investigation like that begins, we know that there will be a lot of intelligence that will be almost impossible to mask," said Clint Watts, a former FBI agent to fight terrorism.

The CIA refused to answer questions about the informant, but denied the CNN report that he was exfiltrated for fear that Trump himself would expose him.

"The wrong speculation that the handling of the president of the most sensitive intelligence of our nation, to which he has access every day, led to an alleged exfiltration operation is inaccurate," the agency said in a statement.