MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s deputy foreign minister said on Wednesday that allegations a suspected CIA mole in the Kremlin handed over information about alleged Russian meddling in U.S. elections were lies and slander, the Interfax news agency reported.

The deputy minister, Sergei Ryabkov, made the comment after U.S. media reports confirmed by two sources to Reuters on Tuesday that a CIA informant in the Russian government had been extracted and brought to the United States.

The official may have been a man called Oleg Smolenkov, Russian daily newspaper Kommersant reported on Tuesday. He is reported to have disappeared with his wife, Antonina, and three children while on holiday in Montenegro in June 2017.