American spy who left the Kremlin: what is known about Oleg Smolenkov

Who is Oleg Smolenkov, what did he do for the United States and why, after escaping from Russia, he did not change his name and openly lived in the States. Edition with the BBC found out the details of the American life of the Russian ex-official.

Фото: Depositphotos

Late on Monday evening, September 9, the family of former Russian official Oleg Smolenkov left their home in the town of Stafford (Virginia). The day before, several American media outlets stated that Smolenkov was “the most valuable informant of the American intelligence services” in the Russian government, and his family came to the United States as a result of a secret CIA special operation.

The calm American life of Oleg Borisovich Smolenkov, former state adviser of the 3 class, ended on the day of September 9, when a minibus with the logo of the NBC television station stopped near his three-story building in Stafford.

As soon as the journalists tried to ring the doorbell of the mansion, two impressive black SUVs drove up to the house. People in dark suits, introducing themselves as “friends of the owner’s family,” inquired about what exactly the film crew needed and insistently advised them to immediately leave the “private property.”

The very next morning, a dozen TV cameras of the leading US TV channels lined up near the house. The doors of the mansion were closed, and the curtains on the windows were tightly closed. As the neighbors explained, the Russian official’s family hurriedly left the house late on Monday, September 9, without telling anyone where they were going. Together with the Smolenkovs, two impressive SUVs with people in dark suits disappeared.

One of the neighbors, Greg Tully, said that the Smolenkovs had moved to Stafford over a year ago, but said he did not know where they had hastily left.

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How were you looking for Oleg Smolenkov?

The covert operation carried out by the CIA in 2017 was first reported by CNN. According to the channel’s sources, US intelligence managed to remove from Russia one of its “high-ranking agents” who worked in the Russian government.

The decision to conduct a special operation was made after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak in the White House in May 2017, during which the American president unexpectedly revealed to Russians the top secret information regarding Syria and received Washington from the Israeli secret services.

Already in the evening, this information was confirmed by the New York Times, citing its own sources, and reported that the journalists had been investigating for several months. In addition, the publication considered it necessary to clarify that the “high-ranking agent” had been working for American intelligence services for decades, he was asked to leave Russia at least twice—in 2016 and 2017—and his “evacuation” was not related to the actions of President Trump.

CNN again repeated the version that the reason for the urgent evacuation of the Russian official was the behavior of the head of the White House. This time, the channel referred to Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Hamburg in early July 2017. After negotiations with the Russian leader behind closed doors, the US president personally took from the translator all the notes regarding the conversation, forbidding him from disclosing any details of the meeting.

Messages about this caused a real storm in the U.S. intelligence community.

“It’s very difficult to accept that intelligence agencies can make decisions because of fears that the President of the United States may reveal this or that information to the enemy,” explained a former US intelligence official who worked at the CIA station in Moscow and asked not to be named. “But something else is more important: after such incidents, it will be much more difficult to continue working with those sources who continue to work in Russia and other countries. How to explain to them that the US leadership can disclose information about them? How can we reassure them that they are still safe?”

At the same time, the American media did not name the escaped official, only specifying that it was known to journalists.

Russian publications, however, quickly found out that they were most likely talking about Oleg Smolenkov, a former employee of the foreign policy department of the presidential administration.

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How did Oleg Smolenkov disappear?

In early September of 2017, several Russian online publications reported that a whole family led by a Russian official had disappeared in Montenegro. Smolenkov and his wife Antonina, along with three children, left Moscow in mid-July, flying to Tivat, and after that only once, on July 21, visited their accounts on social networks. After that, the Smolenkovs disappeared.

At the same time, according to the Russian embassy in Montenegro, the local police did not react in any way to the disappearance of tourists. However, at the beginning of September 2017, the Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case under the article “Murder”. The case is not closed yet.

5 On June 2018, a couple with the names Oleg Smokenkov and Antonina Smolenkov paid 925 thousand dollars for a three-story house with six bedrooms, three fireplaces and six bathrooms in Stafford, Virginia, about an hour's drive from Washington.

In January 2019, management of the property was transferred to a specially created trust, and in the relevant documents the name of the couple was indicated without errors - Oleg Smolenkov and Antonina Smolenkov.

“I can easily imagine how a high-ranking Russian official could save a million dollars to buy real estate in any country in the world,” suggested a former US intelligence officer. “But it’s unlikely that several SUVs with FBI agents inside will be constantly on duty at his house.”

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Who is Oleg Smolenkov?

Oleg Borisovich Smolenkov was born in the city of Ivanovo in the 1969 year and since the end of the 90 years he worked in the apparatus of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the mid-2000, he was appointed second secretary of the Russian embassy in Washington and, according to some reviews, was mainly engaged in financial and economic matters.

They say that it was in Washington that Mr. Smolenkov was able to establish a trusting relationship with the then Russian Ambassador to the American capital, Yuri Ushakov, who now holds the post of Advisor to the Russian President on International Affairs. At least, they left Washington almost simultaneously - in 2008, and since then Smolenkov has invariably followed his boss.

Six months after Ushakov was appointed deputy head of the government apparatus of Russia, Smolenkov also went to work in the Moscow White House, taking the post of chief adviser and then referent of the government apparatus.

Four years later, after Putin returned to the presidency, Ushakov moved to the post of assistant to the president, who oversees foreign policy issues. Following him, Smolenkov joined the administration and got a job in the foreign policy department of the presidential administration.

In 2010, by decree of Dmitry Medvedev, Smolenkov was awarded the class rank of the current state adviser of the 3 class (corresponds to the military rank of Major General).

After returning to Moscow, his wife Antonina also joined the government apparatus and worked for some time in managing the president’s affairs.

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Where does Oleg Smolenkov’s family live?

The town of Stafford with a population of approximately 4 thousand people is considered a quiet and respectable place. Apartment prices start at 400 thousand dollars, so the almost millionth value of a three-story house with an area of ​​almost 550 square meters with a plot of 1,5 hectare is not considered something special here.

In real estate advertisements, realtors especially insist that Stafford is an ideal and safe place to raise children.

According to intelligence expert, deputy director of the European Academy of Intelligence, professor at Coastal Carolina University Joseph Fitsanakis, the choice of such a place to live does not look unusual.

“If Smolenkov really was a defector agent, then in his case the CIA simply fulfilled all its promises,” he explained. “Agents do get paid a lot, often much more than they actually deserve.”

This money is usually kept in secret accounts, so they can use it only after “evacuation”.

After the move, the agents are bought comfortable housing, paid some kind of “scholarship” or offered a job, also in order to justify to others the lifestyle led by the defector’s family.

Often, agents who “returned from the cold” begin to work in the training centers of the American intelligence services or some research centers in the American capital, traditionally associated with intelligence. Among them is the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, which was created at one time to provide financial support to defectors from the USSR and Eastern European countries.

From Stafford, the headquarters of key American intelligence agencies, as well as Washington, are just over an hour's drive. Experts, however, note that in the immediate vicinity of the town, just 25 minutes by car, there is the US Marine Corps base Quantico, on the territory of which there are several training centers for military specialists, as well as the FBI Academy and training base for employees Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). All these educational institutions willingly hire foreign specialists.

Smolenkov’s track record also speaks in favor of this version. In 2010, he served as a referent for the department of the Military Industrial Commission of the Government of the Russian Federation and could have access to top secret information regarding the work of the Russian military-industrial complex.

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Why did not Oleg Smolenkov change his name?

The fact that the family of a former Russian official decided to live in the United States under their own names, American experts consider it quite common.

“Indeed, all defectors are offered to enter the witness protection program, but most of them refuse,” says Joseph Fitsanakis. “In addition, according to long-existing unwritten rules, the intelligence services of Russia and the United States have not carried out “active measures” for the physical elimination of defectors on foreign territory for many decades.”

The latest such incidents occurred in the 1930 years. It is believed that the lives of such defectors are safe, and instead of including witnesses in the protection program, special services often conclude with the agents the so-called Defectors Settlement, pledging to provide 24-hour security, but not insisting on the mandatory change of names and documents.

As a confirmation in the USA, they usually name the stories of the most famous defectors of recent decades. Under his name, a former foreign intelligence general Oleg Kalugin lives in a Washington suburb. At the end of the 90, he was accused by the Russian court of betrayal and deprived of military ranks and awards.

In his book “The Skripal Files,” published in the fall of 2018, journalist Mark Urban claimed that former SVR colonel Alexander Poteev, who is believed to be responsible for the failure of a group of Russian illegal immigrants in the United States in 2010, also lives under his last name in Florida.

According to the journalist, the ex-colonel, sentenced in Moscow to 25 years of imprisonment for treason, registered in Florida as a voter and received a fishing license, indicating his real name.

Experts, however, admit that all unwritten agreements of the special services were violated by the Russian side after the attempted murder in Salisbury of former Colonel Sergei Skripal.

“Few agents work for more than three or four years,” says Fitsanakis. “There are, of course, exceptions, like the story of the famous Kim Philby, who worked for Soviet intelligence for 34 years, but usually “burnout” occurs much earlier, and recruited agents ask to be transported to a safe place.”

According to the deputy director of the European Academy of Intelligence Services, Smolenkov could work for American intelligence for 10-11 years. Fitsanakis found it difficult to suggest what could be the reason for the emergency evacuation of such a valuable agent.

“There are usually several reasons: the CIA received information that the agent was in danger, the agent himself asked for a “move”, citing some reasons, including a threat to life, psychological or other motives,” he listed. “I don’t exclude that this could simply be a kind of reward for a job well done.”

According to the expert, an attempt to assassinate Sergei Skripal may force the American intelligence services to review the practice that has developed over the past decades.

“The biggest challenge for intelligence agencies continues to be demonstrating that all the agents working with them are comfortable and safe,” says Fitsanakis. “Without this, it is simply impossible to recruit new employees. So I do not rule out that now the Smolenkov family will be forced to leave quiet Stafford, change their names and documents, abandoning their already familiar way of life.”

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• A few decades ago, the CIA recruited and carefully developed one mid-level Russian official who, at some point, began to quickly move up the career ladder.
• At the end of 2016, CIA officials, worried about the safety of their informant, made the difficult decision to take him out of Russia. The situation became even more tense when the whistleblower initially refused to leave, citing family problems, thereby causing confusion at the CIA headquarters and forcing American counterintelligence officials to doubt its trustworthiness. A few months later, the CIA again offered its the informant to leave Russia, and this time he agreed.
• The US recalled the spy from Russia in order to avoid being exposed, after Lavrov’s visit to the White House in 2017. During this meeting, they discussed secret dataconcerning the “Islamic State” in Syria provided by Israel. Trump did not have the right to disclose to representatives of a foreign state these data.

Read also on ForumDaily:

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