Latest Russian spy story looks like another elaborate media deception

[TomSea]

Latest Russian spy story looks like another elaborate media deception
The tale of Oleg Smolenkov is just the latest load of high-level BS dumped on us by intelligence agencies
Sep 13



When I was 20, I studied at the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute, in the waning days of the Soviet empire. Most of the Russians I met were amusingly free of stress caused by following news. Why would they bother? Bull-factories like Rossiskaya Gazeta and Leningradsaya Pravda were basically collections of dreary government news releases rewritten to sound like news reports.

I saw newspapers in Leningrad shredded into slivers of toilet paper, used in place of curtains in dorm rooms, even stuffed into overcoat linings as insulation. But I can’t recall a Russian person actually reading a Soviet newspaper for the content. That’s how useless its “news” was.

We’re headed to a similar place. The cable networks, along with the New York Times and Washington Post increasingly act like house organs of the government, and in particular the intelligence agencies.

Read more at: https://taibbi.substack.com/p/latest-russian-spy-story-looks-like

This "extract" the spy in Russia story I get is wondrous in trying to decipher it, the author does seem to be coming from the right angle. Unsure of what this sourced website is about.  In brief, this whole story has seemed "fishy".

[TomSea]

Paper Reports 'Details' Of Alleged CIA Informer's Disappearance In Montenegro


The house in Stafford, Virginia, belonged to Oleg and Antonina Smolenkov, public records say.

PODGORICA -- A newspaper in Montenegro has published what it says are details of the 2017 disappearance of a former Kremlin official identified in Russian media as a possible CIA informer who fled to the United States.

A Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, meanwhile, said Moscow had sought the help of the international police agency Interpol in locating the man, whose name, according to unconfirmed Russian press reports, is Oleg Smolenkov.

The Montenegrin daily Pobjeda reported on September 12 that Oleg Smolenkov and his wife and children arrived via commercial flight in the resort town of Tivat on June 14, 2017, and that he disappeared, apparently via a private yacht, from the marina there "a few days later."

Read more at: https://www.rferl.org/a/montenegro-cia-informant-russia-oleg-smolenkov/30160588.html

I read a bit of this coverage as well, Radio Free Europe.

Virginia Residents Question Whether Their Neighbor Was A Russian Informant

STAFFORD, Virginia -- As U.S. and Russian officials cast doubt on the accuracy of U.S. media reports that two years ago the CIA extracted a Russian intelligence asset who allegedly provided top-secret information on President Vladimir Putin, efforts to identify the man led to an estate an hour's drive southwest of Washington, D.C.

No one answered when an RFE/RL reporter rang the doorbell of 78 Partridge Lane in Stafford, Virginia, listed in public records as being owned by Oleg Smolenkov, the same name given by Kommersant and other Russian media as the alleged informant.

The drapes on the windows of the large home on a leafy cul-de-sac were pulled tight, and only a basketball court was visible in the back.

Read more at: https://www.rferl.org/a/virginia-residents-question-whether-their-neighbor-was-a-russian-informant/30157496.html

Looks like much ado about nothing.