In July 2016, smack in the middle of the US presidential election, a strange story is published

by a Russian news agency.

A former Russian intelligence officer who had defected to the West had died inside the

United States.

The officer was Colonel Alexander Patev.

A double agent who years earlier had secretly tipped off the FBI to the existence of a ring

of sleeper agents, known as the illegals, who were living quiet lives posing as ordinary

American families while they spied on US political and business figures.

Only Patev wasn't dead at all.

He was living in an undisclosed location under FBI protection.

The Russians were tickling the wire.

It's a phrase common among law enforcement and intel types.

Putting out disinformation that they apparently hoped would create a stir among Patev's family

and friends, causing phone calls to be made and emails written that would help the Russians

track him down.

Now a new book offers a provocative theory about the Patev false flag.

The Russians had actually targeted Patev for assassination, the ultimate revenge for

his betrayal of the motherland.

But when they couldn't find him, they went next down their list of traders, leading to

the poisoning of Sergei Skropal, another former Russian spy living in Salisbury, England.

It was a sign of just how aggressive Vladimir Putin's Russia has become.

A useful reminder during a week the US Justice Department indicted seven Russian military

...