A social media video also appeals to diplomats, scientists and high-tech specialists to spill the beans on their inside knowledge of ‘the top leadership of the Russian Federation’
CIA appeal to potential Russian defectors in social media video
The CIA has made an audacious appeal for Vladimir Putin’s military officers and spies to contact them and hand over key secrets about his regime.
A new video on social media also appeals to diplomats, scientists and high-tech specialists to spill the beans on their inside knowledge – with a specific request for information on “the top leadership of the Russian Federation”. The video purports to show a fictional Russian “who made the difficult but important decision to quietly reach out to the CIA via the anonymous Tor information system”.
The recruitment drive for agents comes just days before Donald Trump returns to the White House. Well placed insiders are told: “The CIA wants to know the truth about Russia, and we are looking for reliable people who know and can tell us that truth. Your information may be more valuable than you think.
“We understand that Russians may decide to make contact with the CIA due to a variety of circumstances. We appreciate and respect people who are willing to communicate with us. Protecting all those who work with us around the world is our professional duty.”
The appeal will enrage Putin who abhors “traitors” and has ordered their death in some cases after the Kremlin has pardoned them and swapped them in prisoner exchanges. One such case was Sergei Skripal, a GUR military intelligence agent who acted as a double agent for Britain’s MI6 secret service. An assassination attempt in Salisbury using Novichok failed to kill him in 2018.
In the video, a CIA message reads: “Do you work in the military or in intelligence, diplomacy, science, high technology? Or deal with people who do these things? Do you have information about the economy or the top leadership of the Russian Federation? Contact us. Perhaps the people around you don’t want to hear the truth. We do.”
The screenplay shows a disgruntled Russian missile scientist – perhaps a hypersonic expert – reflecting on the misery of his life, under pressure from Putin’s uniformed “wolves” seen walking through his missile plant, demanding better results when the country is cut off from the outside world due to sanctions linked to the war in Ukraine, and young colleagues fleeing the country.
“Every day brings new and more unreasonable demands,” reflects the scientist. “We were meant for so much more and we could have built anything. But now most of the brightest minds of the [Russian] younger generation have left…. Achievement cannot be measured in isolation from everything else. True progress requires co-operation. And we’re no longer part of the world community in which we once played a leading role.”
He bemoans: “I feel like my life has become a contradiction So many times I’ve had to compromise my principles, I hardly recognise myself.” His wife seeks to comfort him, and he asks: “What happened to the man she married? I just wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps.
“He often told me that the essence of science is the process of discovery. It cannot be faked, it can’t be manipulated. I somehow lost my way. But I know the way to the truth. They say that a man meets his destiny on the path that he’s chosen in an attempt to avoid it. My future will no longer be in the hands of these wolves. My choice is to be a shepherd.”
Would-be CIA informers are told of a “safe” way to contact US intelligence.