MOSCOW, September 23. /TASS/. Former staff member of the Kremlin administration Oleg Smolenkov, whom the media dubbed as a CIA agent, has been put on a missing persons list, according to the Russian Interior Ministry’s database.

Smolenkov, born in 1969, was reported missing and a search for him was launched. 

A source in Russia’s law enforcement agencies told TASS that a criminal case into murder was opened after Smolenkov had gone missing in Montenegro, but the investigation was suspended.

On September 9, CNN claimed that US intelligence had evacuated a key agent from Russia in 2017, because there was a high risk that they could have been exposed. CNN did not reveal the name of the purported agent, whom it described as a fairly senior official in the Russian administration. According to The New York Times, the alleged agent held a senior post and had high-level access to the Kremlin. The CIA and the White House castigated CNN for airing information that they said was inaccurate. Also, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham blasted CNN’s report as "inaccurate" and had "the potential to put lives in danger," without elaborating, though.

Some media outlets eventually quoted anonymous sources as saying the individual in focus was someone named Oleg Smolenkov. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Smolenkov had served as an employee of the presidential staff several years ago but at a certain point was dismissed under an internal order.