Rusija i sve vezano za nju

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Tuesday played down US media reports of a CIA spy inside Russia's presidential administration, calling them "pulp fiction," but said a low-level official who Russian media suggested was the agent had worked there before being fired.

CNN reported on Monday that the United States had successfully extracted one of its highest-level covert sources inside Russia in 2017. The New York Times later said the informant had sent secrets to Washington for decades.

A source familiar with US monitoring of Russian activities confirmed to Reuters that such a CIA informant inside the Russian government did exist and that the informant had been extracted and brought to the United States.

The source indicated that US officials were seriously concerned that Kremlin officials had made public what they claimed was the individual's name.

Russian daily newspaper Kommersant said on Tuesday the official may have been a man called Oleg Smolenkov, who is reported to have disappeared with his wife and three children while on holiday in Montenegro in 2017 and is now reported to be living in the United States.

Kommersant published a picture of a house in Virginia which it said had been bought by a man called Smolenkov in 2018.

Asked about the matter, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Smolenkov had really worked in the Russian presidential administration but had been fired in 2016/17.

'Pulp fiction'

"It is true that Smolenkov worked in the presidential administration, but he was fired several years ago. His job was not at a senior official level," he said.

Smolenkov did not have direct access to President Vladimir Putin, Peskov added, declining with a laugh to confirm whether he had been a US agent or not.

"I can't confirm that ... I don't know whether he was an agent. I can only confirm that there was such a person in the presidential administration, who was later sacked."

"All this US media speculation about who urgently extracted who and saved who from who and so on — this is more the genre of pulp fiction, crime reading, so let's leave it up to them," said Peskov.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said separately on Tuesday he had never heard of Smolenkov.

"I have never seen this man, have never met him, and have never monitored his career or movements," Lavrov said.

CNN reported on Monday that the US decision to extract its informant had occurred soon after a May 2017 meeting in the Oval Office in which US President Donald Trump had discussed highly classified intelligence with Lavrov.

Lavrov said on Tuesday that nobody had divulged any secrets to him at the meeting with Trump.

A US government source also insisted that Trump did not disclose secrets, such as the informant's existence or identity, at any meeting with Russian officials.

Gargantua wrote:

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Tuesday played down US media reports of a CIA spy inside Russia's presidential administration, calling them "pulp fiction," but said a low-level official who Russian media suggested was the agent had worked there before being fired.

CNN reported on Monday that the United States had successfully extracted one of its highest-level covert sources inside Russia in 2017. The New York Times later said the informant had sent secrets to Washington for decades.

A source familiar with US monitoring of Russian activities confirmed to Reuters that such a CIA informant inside the Russian government did exist and that the informant had been extracted and brought to the United States.

The source indicated that US officials were seriously concerned that Kremlin officials had made public what they claimed was the individual's name.

Russian daily newspaper Kommersant said on Tuesday the official may have been a man called Oleg Smolenkov, who is reported to have disappeared with his wife and three children while on holiday in Montenegro in 2017 and is now reported to be living in the United States.

Skot je u intervjuu za Kurir, upitan kako gleda na činjenicu da nemali deo građana Srbije i dalje ima više negativna nego pozitivna osećanja prema SAD, prvenstveno zbog NATO bombardovanja i kako je to moguće promeniti, rekao da to dobro zna i da bi se možda i on na njihovom mestu isto osećao, ali da ni Srbija ni Sjedinjene Države ne mogu da vrate vreme unazad.

"Ono što možemo je da 1999. godinu posmatramo u široj perspektivi. Pokušavao sam da podsetim da su odnosi SAD i Srbije kroz istoriju uglavnom bili odlični, a da izuzetak predstavljaju devedesete godine i dešavanja za vreme Miloševićevog režima. Dve decenije su prošle od tada. Krajnje je vreme da krenemo napred i poboljšamo naše odnose, a imamo veoma dobru osnovu za takav napredak. Delimo zajedničku viziju da Srbiji pripada mesto u Evropskoj uniji", rekao je Skot.

Zaharova je rekla da bi za početak SAD, pored izvinjenja trebalo da plate odštetu porodicama poginulih i ranjenih, kao i onima koji su "izgubili zdravlje zbog projektila punjenih osiromašenim uranijumom", prenosi Tas.

"Tek kada to bude učinjeno i kada bude obavljen odgovarajući posao na terenu, (SAD) mogu da pozivaju druge da se krene napred", kazala je Zaharova.

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