Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine gave US intelligence agencies rare opportunity to recruit Kremlin insiders - Voice of America
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has given U.S. intelligence agencies a rare opportunity to recruit Kremlin insiders angry about waging war
According to Censor.NET, this was reported by the Voice of America.
Last year in the UK, CIA Director Bill Burns said: "Dissatisfaction creates a unique opportunity for us. We are very open for business."
"This business is about exchanging information that a spy or agent will provide in exchange for something they want. We need people who have some idea of the priorities of [Russian] leaders, what they are trying to achieve," said former CIA officer David McCloskey.
The ongoing recruitment operation is far from being a state secret. The CIA has published videos in Russian on social media that call for patriotism among disgruntled Russians who have access to information that could be useful to the United States.
The videos provide step-by-step instructions for potential Russian informants on how to avoid detection by Russian services by using virtual private networks or VPNs and the Tor web browser to communicate with the agency anonymously and encrypted via the Dark Web.
The FBI has launched an effort to recruit Russian government sources in the United States, including targeting social media ads to phones registered near the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
"This direct outreach is an unusual approach, but one that could prove effective in reaching Russia, where there are few opportunities to voice their grievances. Russians angry at state-sanctioned corruption and abuse by the Kremlin, unable to act openly, have no alternative but to seek outside support," said former CIA chief Douglas London.
In January this year, the FBI disrupted a hacker network controlled by Russian military intelligence.
