i had a spook experience in amsterdam once... for real i saw this dude and i was like "spook" my gut told me i was looking at literal mossad, off he scooted in some black car 

 Possibly. My working hypothesis, the simplest one, is that his employer HRF is run by Kasparov, who is one of the biggest Putin critics. I even mentioned that to him in the exchange, but of course he had to deny that it would affect what he can say.