CIA Reportedly Had Asset So Close To Putin That Spy Could Photograph Secret Documents

[Ghost Dog]

7. Hmm. How to know what's true?

Mr. Sciutto's source is presumably a CIA official.

Tass has this to say this morning (quoting due to relevance):

MOSCOW, September 10. /TASS/. Oleg Smolenkov, a Russian national, whom media reports refer to as a possible CIA agent, has never worked for the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation.

"He has never worked for the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation," Elena Krylova, Spokesperson for the head of the Russian Presidential Administrative Directorate, told TASS, commenting on reports alleging that Smolenkov was its employee prior to 2017...

...Some Russian media outlets reported citing anonymous sources that the individual in question could be someone named Oleg Smolenkov, who supposedly worked for the government. Some of them mentioned Smolenkov’s other places of employment.

https://tass.com/politics/1077450

And:

MOSCOW, September 10. /TASS/. The Kremlin is not conducting a search for a former employee of the presidential staff, Oleg Smolenkov, and has no evidence if he was a CIA agent, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media.

"No, I am unable to confirm this, because I do not know if he was an agent or not. I can merely confirm that there was such an employee of the presidential staff and that he was dismissed at a certain point," Peskov said, when asked if he could confirm Smolenkov was a CIA agent...

https://tass.com/politics/1077458