Russia has formally declared alleged CIA mole missing, search underway

MOSCOW, Sept 23 — Russia’s Interior Ministry said on Monday that a former Kremlin official alleged to have been a CIA informant had been formally declared missing and that police were looking for him, the RIA news agency reported.

US media reports, confirmed to Reuters by two sources, have said a CIA informant in the Russian government was extracted and brought to the United States in 2017.

Russian daily newspaper Kommersant has said that the official may have been a man called Oleg Smolenkov, who disappeared with his wife, Antonina, and three children while on holiday in Montenegro in June 2017.

RIA said the interior ministry’s database showed that Smolenkov had been declared missing and as someone Russia was looking for. — Reuters