If so, how was I able to name him? CNN still hasn’t done that.
In fact the Russian media posted a story about his disappearance two years ago:
The”feds” you mention were Russians.
I guess 6 acres in Stafford, VA qualifies as “one of the Western countries”.
CNN initially said ‘a person from Putin’s administration’ who was extracted from Russia some time ago and they said sources in US intelligence community confirmed it.
There were no names.
When Smolenkov disappeared in was all over the Russian media but nobody said he was a spy at the time.
The ‘feds’ are Russian SKR, true. They investigated it as possible murder but promptly closed the case upon finding his whereabouts.
I believe Russian Kommersant Daily was first to connect the dots and to suggest Smolenkov was the person US media is talking about.
Then CNN reported it following Kommersant allegations.
I might be wrong but it is how I got the timeline.
Putin’s office now admits the person is real but they don’t know if the allegations of espionage are true and they asked counterintelligence to investigate.
By the way, if you read in Russian there is another interesting take from Vzglyad:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/vz.ru/amp/politics/2019/9/10/997050.html
Russian media believes the leak is Brennan’s provocation based of Trump derangement syndrome.