Russian officials and state-controlled media outlets named the informant as Oleg B. Smolenkov, and dismissed him as a boozy nobody who had no contact with Mr. Putin.

That picture contrasts sharply with what U.S. intelligence officials have said about the spy, who has been extracted from Russia: that he saw Mr. Putin regularly and became “one of the C.I.A.’s most valuable assets.” Our reporters traced him to a house in Virginia, which he bought in 2018 for $925,000.

The C.I.A. declined to comment, and The New York Times was not able to independently confirm that Mr. Smolenkov was the spy extracted by the United States.

Pinch of salt: Russia wants to make it seem as if the C.I.A. invested in a low-level diplomat, but minimizing a rival’s recruits is as much a part of spycraft as inflating them.