Stephanie Keith/Getty Images; Mikhail Klimentyev/Pool/AFP via Getty Images; Rebecca Zisser/Insider
It was the perfect hunting ground for a Kremlin operative looking to get his hooks into Peter Thiel, one of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley: an extravagant birthday party with hundreds of guests, held at Schloss Neuwaldegg, a 17th-century palace in the suburbs of Vienna. Flawless June weather, models taking selfies beside statues of Greek gods, a troupe of acrobats, Champagne. Tech executives mingled with politicians and artists before sitting down to dinner in a flower-bedecked banquet hall.