WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th August, 2018) The CIA is in the dark about Moscows intentions regarding the upcoming US midterm elections because their Kremlin informants have gone silent, media reported.
Although CIA officers do not think sources have been killed or compromised some suspect they have been deterred by Russias aggressive counterintelligence methods, the New York Times reported on Friday citing US officials familiar with the intelligence.
Ahead of the 2016 presidential election, the report added, the CIA received critical intelligence from sources close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Kremlin officials.
Former and current officials also shared with the newspaper that they are experiencing difficulties with getting intelligence from Russia because of Moscows expulsion of American intelligence officers.
One former official told the New York Times that the CIA station in Moscow has shrunk and is now under intense surveillance. Officials also said sources close to Putin are very rare and the United States has only had a few in recent years.
In January 2017, a US intelligence community report claimed that Moscow tried to meddle in the US election process although the alleged hacking activities did not affect the final vote count. Moscow has repeatedly denied interfering in US elections as such actions would run counter to the principles and practices of Russian foreign policy.
