The Central Intelligence Agency has released a new video this week in its push to recruit Russian spies, in which a voice reportedly says “top leadership has sold the country out for palaces and yachts at a time when our soldiers are chewing rotten potatoes and firing from prehistoric weapons.”
The three-minute, Russian-language clip, which the CIA posted on X alongside the caption “Why did I contact the CIA: For the sake of the Motherland,” features a fictional male character working for Russia’s military intelligence agency, according to Reuters.
“Those around you may not want to hear the truth. But we do. You are not powerless,” the news agency quoted the video as saying.
During the clip, the man says “Do I have enough courage to confront this betrayal?” and then declares that the real enemy is Russia’s corrupt leadership and elite, Reuters adds.
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“The top leadership has sold the country out for palaces and yachts at a time when our soldiers are chewing rotten potatoes and firing from prehistoric weapons,” the man reportedly says.
“Our people are forced to give bribes to simply find work.”
The video shows a Russian limousine and people giving toasts before ending with the man pulling out a phone and looking at a web page that has the words “Contact CIA.”
In the post on X, the CIA linked to a YouTube playlist showing three other videos that are part of the recruitment campaign.
“The CIA wants to know the truth about Russia, and we are looking for reliable people who know and can tell us this truth,” read a caption from a video posted in May last year.
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In another video, the CIA wrote that it is “providing Russian-language instructions on how those who feel compelled by the Russian Government’s unjust war” in Ukraine “can securely contact us.”
However, the Kremlin on Tuesday appeared unmoved by the effort.
“You know, this practice is quite common, intelligence agencies around the world very often use the media and social networks to recruit new employees. And they do it all the time, the CIA does it every year,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Reuters.
“Somebody needs to tell the CIA that in our country [Russian social network] VKontakte is much more popular than the banned X,” he added. “And that VKontakte’s audience is much larger.”
