CIA tries to recruit double agents in Russia with new video
- The US spy agency is targeting ‘patriotic Russians’ in intelligence circles who may feel disaffected over the Ukraine war and corruption among elites
- In the video, shots of a bleak Russian winter are spliced with images of official limousines and wealthy Russians giving toasts
The US Central Intelligence Agency has released a Russian-language video to try to persuade Russian intelligence employees to switch sides and work as double agents for Washington.
CIA Director William Burns said in July that disaffection among some Russians over the war in Ukraine was creating a rare opportunity to recruit spies, and that the CIA was not letting it pass.
The video, released on the CIA’s official social media channels, tries to appeal to what it suggests are patriotic Russians working in intelligence agencies who may feel betrayed by what it called corruption in elite circles and the poor way the Russian armed forces are equipped and supplied.
“Those around you may not want to hear the truth. But we do. You are not powerless,” says the video, the latest in a series of recruitment videos targeting Russia, before detailing ways to contact the CIA.
Accompanied by melancholy classical music, the video’s main, fictional character is an unnamed 35-year-old male employee of Russia’s military intelligence agency who casts himself as a patriot who loves Russia and once served as a paratrooper.