The CIA's alleged Kremlin asset reportedly spent at least five years working inside Russia's presidential administration

Oleg Smolenkov, the CIA’s reported asset inside the Kremlin, worked for at least five years in the office of Yuri Ushakov, now a presidential adviser on foreign policy, a source close to Russia’s intelligence community told the newspaper Vedomosti. 

Smolenkov also worked at Russia’s U.S. embassy, when Ushakov served as ambassador, and then at the Kremlin, where Ushakov was President Dmitry Medvedev’s deputy chief of staff.

One source told Vedomosti that Smolenkov had access to “very sensitive information” while working in the presidential administration, including secret intelligence, while another source told the newspaper that he didn’t have access to classified data, but could have learned such information in conversations with colleagues.

Journalists from NBC News tried to speak to Smolenkov at his new home in Stafford, Virginia, where he was living openly under his real name, but “likely U.S. government agents monitoring the Russian’s house” intercepted the reporters. After a visit from journalists from The Daily Beast, the Smolenkovs quickly left their home, neighbors told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.