brendan kyle hatcher is a united states diplomat who was called "the most closely surveilled american in russia" by abc news investigative reporter brian ross in a september 2009 investigative report. hatcher gained notoriety in august 2009 after the russian tabloid "komsomolskaya pravda", a newspaper which russian intelligence expert andrei soldatov ties to the federal security services (fsb) of the russian federation, showed a video of him while accusing him of being an undercover cia agent in russia. the media reports were quickly condemned by investigating authorities in the u.s. as fabricated.