MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th May, 2023) The US's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) launched on Tuesday a Telegram channel called Securely Contacting CIA, aimed to recruit Russian citizens.
"CIA's global mission requires that individuals be able to contact us securely from anywhere in the world. That's why, for the first time, CIA is establishing a presence on Telegram - to reach those who feel compelled to engage CIA and ensure they know how to do so as securely as possible," the statement on the new channel read.
The channel posted several messages, including a video urging Russians to collaborate, and the coordinates through which to contact CIA on the dark web.
"Are you a military officer? Do you work in intelligence, diplomacy, science or high technology areas, or deal with people who do that? Do you have information about economy or the highest leadership of Russian Federation? Contact us," a message posted on the channel in Russian read.
In May 2022, the Washington Post reported that CIA posted online instructions in Russian explaining how to make secret contact with the US intelligence agency and provide it with classified information. Then, the chairman of the Russian parliamentary commission on investigation into foreign interference, Vasily Piskarev, said that CIA's attempts to collect information from Russian citizens qualify as felonies such as attempted recruitment, espionage and incitement to treason.
In November 2022, CIA's Deputy Director of Operations, David Marlowe, said that the agency was looking for Russians dissatisfied with their country's military operation in Ukraine in order to turn them into its agents. The Russian Embassy to the US responded by saying that CIA's public acknowledgment it was seeking to recruit Russians confirmed the US's direct involvement in the Ukrainian crisis, as well as its commitment to weaken Russia from within.
On February 24, 2022, Russia began a military operation in Ukraine in responnse to requests for protection from the Ukrainian forces from the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Moscow said that the aim of its operation was the "demilitarization and denazification" of Ukraine. On November 15, CIA head William Burns held a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kiev and reaffirmed Washington's commitment to assist Kiev authorities.
