CIA recruits Russians as spies, Kremlin speaks out

Since the fall of 2022, the CIA and the FBI have openly used social media platforms to encourage disgruntled Russians to contact them and provide information through secure internet channels.

CIA tuyển thành công người Nga làm gián điệp - Ảnh 1. — Inside CIA headquarters in Virginia

Recently, the CIA posted a video on YouTube and Telegram - a popular application in Russia, calling on military officers, intelligence, diplomats , scientists and Russian people to provide information about the Russian economy and leadership.

"The CIA wants to know the truth about Russia and we are looking for trustworthy people who know and can tell us the truth. Your information may be more valuable than you think," Reuters quoted the message from the video as saying. The Russians were instructed to communicate through the anonymous online communication system Tor.

How did Moscow react to the CIA's plan to recruit Russians?

The Wall Street Journal on May 16 quoted a related official as saying that the CIA's efforts had yielded results when a number of Russians had contacted the agency. The official did not say how many people had contacted the CIA or what information they had provided.

Daniel Hoffman, a retired CIA agent who served as station chief in Moscow, said any Russian who wanted information had the right to choose the time and place to contact the CIA, and the video was simply to communicate that “we are here and can safely communicate with them.” He said the video would have been a success if it had connected just one person.

The video was released nearly 15 months into the war in Ukraine and just ahead of a Ukrainian counteroffensive. Russians could be taking a huge risk by contacting the CIA, with the Russian parliament passing a law in April increasing the penalty for treason from 20 years to life in prison.

Chinese report says CIA has powerful weapons for cyber attacks

Commenting on the CIA video, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he believed Russian special forces were definitely watching, according to Reuters. "We all know that the CIA and other Western intelligence agencies are constantly reducing their activities on our territory," Peskov said.

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