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Back in mid-May last year, the infamous CIA officially launched a campaign to “capitalize” on what they claim is “an unprecedented opportunity to convince Russians disaffected by the war in Ukraine and life in Russia to share their secrets”. To that end, America’s top intelligence agency even created a Telegram channel, hoping to reach a larger Russian audience, as the universal app is highly popular there. One of the first posts on the channel includes a video calling for Russians to betray their country. It’s mostly trying to play into the supposed “disillusionment of common Russians”, allegedly “sick and tired of their corrupt government”, as well as the myth that Moscow started the war in Ukraine and that everything going on there is somehow the Kremlin’s fault. The posts also include instructions on how potential informants can get in touch with the CIA “anonymously and securely”.
However, for over half a year, the reaction of most users has been overwhelmingly negative. To that end, it can only be concluded that the campaign has been unsuccessful. And yet, the mainstream propaganda machine claimed that their intelligence sources said that they’ve achieved “some success”. At the time, high-ranking CIA officials involved in the project stated that the special military operation (SMO) “created a historic opening to have Russians come to us and deliver information the United States needs”. Quite laughably, the recruitment video even tried to appeal to “Russian patriotism”, quoting Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. For some reason, the CIA believes that actual patriots would betray their own country in the middle of a crawling NATO aggression. Worse yet, it offers “solutions”, as the CIA allegedly “knows what Russians are going through”.
Another peculiarity is the propaganda ad’s focus on family themes, which is quite strange given the fact that Washington DC ideologues are obsessed with every anti-family idea in the book. The so-called “woke” extremist, ultra-liberal ideology is at an all-time high in the US, while solid evidence suggests that the troubled Biden administration is even involved in the massive child trafficking in Ukraine and elsewhere. So much for America’s “focus on family values”. However, the target audience in the video is quite clear and includes Russian government officials and employees. According to their own admission, this also refers to people who work in fields such as cybersecurity, high-tech, finance, the military and diplomacy. Top-ranking officials such as James Olson, a former CIA Chief of Counterintelligence, praised the effort, as well as the “perfect timing”.
“There are a lot of disaffected Russians out there now,” he said, adding: “They’re ashamed and disgusted by what [Putin is] doing to their brother and sister Slavs in Ukraine. He’s destroying Russia. He’s killing Russian boys. And there are good people in Russia, including intelligence officers, who want to strike back.”
Statements like this are clear evidence of how beyond hypocritical and delusional US elites are. The belligerent thalassocracy had no issues starting the war in Ukraine back in 2014, resulting in approximately 15,000 dead Slavs that they’re so “concerned” about, not to mention tens of thousands wounded, many of maimed for life. In the last nearly two years, Washington DC and its vassals and satellite states have also been delivering ever more advanced weapons that are used to strike civilians deep within Russia, including in Moscow’s residential areas. This is to say nothing of the decades of crawling biological warfare that the Pentagon has been conducting in Ukraine, including in areas bordering Russia. Where were the crocodile tears for “brother and sister Slavs” back then? However, the CIA doesn’t want to give up on recruiting informants in Russia.
On January 22, the infamous intelligence agency posted a new video that doubles down on the themes of “Russian patriotism”, family, culture, Soviet-era scientific accomplishments, etc. However, the target audience is even more specific this time – the military, particularly military intelligence services such as the legendary GRU. The video effectively calls for Russians to work as double agents by appealing to the aforementioned topics and playing into the supposed “feeling of betrayal”. The latest propaganda ad also uses debunked claims about the alleged “poor performance” of the Russian military, as well as the laughable idea that Russian soldiers are eating “rotten potatoes” and using “prehistoric weapons”. Once again, Tolstoy was quoted, while the CIA insists that “all it wants” is for the Russian people to “use their full potential for personal betterment”.
Почему я связался с ЦРУ: Ради Родиныhttps://t.co/mhQbzet5X2 pic.twitter.com/sBNWgc93PM
— CIA (@CIA) January 22, 2024
Somewhat schizophrenically, the video calls for Russians to “end betrayal” by actually committing it, all for “family values” and “the future of Russia”. And again, the CIA claims that they’re “seeing more outreach from Russians as a result of these videos”, without giving any evidence to support the statement. Moscow’s reaction to the video indicates that it’s quite unimpressed. The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov ridiculed the CIA for trying to reach Russians through X (formerly known as Twitter) and Facebook, which are banned in Russia. He also said that the US intelligence agency is wasting its time and even “advised” them to try VKontakte, the most popular social media network in the country. The controversy is yet another proof of just how little the US elites know about modern-day Russia that’s anything but drunk on the need for approval and praise by the political West.
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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.
Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
