Comrade Akhmetshin is clearly a Russian spy. That's the point of the article. The Russian wasn't offering inside dope on the anti-Putin lobbyists, but was hoping to stir the pot. Why should Freeze have followed up by fact-checking his colleague?

Let me guess. Akhmetshin won't be invited to the next Halifax forum. As his loyalties are clearly more with Russia than his adopted country of the USA. Dual citizenship is always paradoxical when the two nations are hostile to one another.