Just a short diary to link to the articles you all really should read.
This started out yesterday as a very small side-story on TPM, but this morning Josh Marshall updated it.
Essentially, what it talks about is that the 2nd in Command at the FSB (Russian Secret Police) was arrested and charged with treason yesterday. Initially the speculation was that this might be an “olive branch” to the Trump administration because he’s the guy that’s been accused of being in charge of the DNC/RNC/Podesta hacks and the whole Russian US-election-response-team.
Initially.
That changed today:
Well, now we have reports that Sergei Mikhailov is suspected of being a US asset at the heart of Russian intelligence.
The report is from The Moscow Times, a respected English language publication. But the report appears to rely on a report in Novaya Gazeta.
From the Moscow Times ...
A top cybersecurity specialist in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) was arrested on Wednesday reportedly on suspicion of leaking information to the U.S. intelligence community — a bombshell accusation that, if true, would mean Washington had a spy in the heart of Russia’s national defense infrastructure.
Here's the additional detail ...
According to the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the FSB believes Sergei Mikhailov tipped off U.S. officials to information about Vladimir Fomenko and his server rental company “King Servers,” which the American cybersecurity company ThreatConnect identified last September as “an information nexus” that was used by hackers suspected of working for Russian state security in cyberattacks.
Marshall goes on to explain what this might mean, and his explanation is much better than anything I could come up with, so:
But this immediately poses the question: if Mikhailov was a US asset, how was he compromised? Did the information put out by US intelligence somehow lead to his exposure? Without putting too fine a point on it, a number of close advisors to President Trump are being scrutinized for ties to Russia. Some of them participated in the intelligence briefings the President receives.
Do we have a very big problem?
And then, an hour or so ago, the same speculation shows up in Newsweek. This story seems to be growing legs — not that that means much in the Trump era — but of all the stories that could become “The Big One,” this is the one that scares me the most.