The CIA Has A Social Media Campaign Just For Russians

Uploaded on 2023-07-03 in TECHNOLOGY-Key Areas-Social Media, INTELLIGENCE-Hot Spots-Russia, INTELLIGENCE--USA, FREE TO VIEW

The Ukraine war is having a "corrosive" effect on Vladimir Putin's leadership of Russia, according to the head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Now, the CIA has posted a video on social media offering Russians a secure way to communicate with it, promising to protect their safety if they share secrets about the Ukraine war and other information with America’s spies.

Russian disaffection over the war is providing new opportunities for the CIA to collect intelligence, according to the agency's Director William J Burns. It is claimed that this video has been seen 2.5 million times in the first week.

Burns made the comments while delivering the annual lecture at the Ditchley Foundation in the UK. In his address he observed that everyone had been "riveted" by the scenes last Saturday of Prigozhin's "armed challenge" to Moscow, when his Wagner mercenary forces marched towards Russia's capital.

The CIA campaign includes a new CIA channel on Telegram - the social media network that is a highly popular source of unfiltered news in Russia. The Telegram video ends with instructions on how to get in touch with the CIA anonymously and securely on the Dark Web without being monitored.. The video is also being posted to its other social media platforms, including YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Director Burns also reiterated the message other US officials have previously made in public that the US had no part in Prigozhin's mutiny.

CIA officials involved in the project said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created a historic opening “to have Russians come to us and deliver information the United States needs.” It also comes after a previous recruitment drive following the launch of the invasion that the officials said has been successful, with “contact coming in.”

Burns, who previously served as the US Ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, said spending much of the last two decades trying to understand Russian President Putin had given him a "healthy dose of humility about pontificating about Putin and Russia".

Business Insider: BBC: CNN: NBC: Newsweek: Skscape: Image: Egor Myznick

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