Suspected Russian CIA asset hid with family in plain sight in suburbs near Washington after disappearing on holiday in 2017
- A spy story gripping Washington takes surprise twist after Russian newspaper names ex-Russian official who went missing while on holiday two years ago
- He is now reported to be living in a large house in Stafford, Virginia, just south of the US capital
A former Russian government official thought to have spied for the United States was hiding in plain sight, living in a suburban neighbourhood an hour outside Washington.
The Russian Kommersant newspaper reported Tuesday that Oleg Smolenkov, whom it described as a “missing” employee of the Russian presidential administration, was spotted in the United States.
The paper reported that Smolenkov disappeared in 2017 during a family holiday to Montenegro and suggested he may have been an American agent who was spirited out of Russia after providing information linking Russian President Vladimir Putin to his country’s campaign to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election.
One source told CNN that the decision to smuggle a CIA informant, whom it did not name, out of Russia was driven partly by Donald Trump’s divulging classified information to Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, in an Oval Office meeting on 10 May 2017, a month before the exfiltration.
It is highly unusual for a country to name a possible turncoat. It’s even more unusual for a suspected spy to be living abroad using his own name.
Public records show two addresses for an Oleg Smolenkov. One is a six-bedroom house on three acres in Stafford, Virginia, and the other is the Russian Embassy in Washington.
Diplomatic records show that Smolenkov worked as a “second secretary” in the embassy from at least 2006 until 2008. He appears to have received a traffic citation in 2006 in Arlington, Virginia.