According to the US foreign intelligence service, the Ukraine war is having a “corrosive” effect on the Russian leadership under President Vladimir Putin. The disappointment in Russia about the war offers the CIA new opportunities to collect intelligence information, CIA director William Burns said, according to the BBC at the annual lecture of the Ditchley Foundation in the English county of Oxfordshire on Saturday (local time) – a week after the failed revolt of the Mercenary group Wagner in Russia. “This dissatisfaction creates a unique opportunity for us at the CIA,” Burns said of agent recruitment. “We will not let this opportunity go to waste.”
Burns said the actions of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin were “a vivid reminder of the corrosive effect of Putin’s war on his own society and regime.” Prigozhin’s actions and statements would have an effect for some time. “Disappointment with the war will continue to gnaw at the Russian leadership.”
The CIA launched a social media campaign a few weeks ago to reach out to people in Russia. According to media reports, a video was published on Telegram explaining how to contact the CIA secretly and anonymously. The video was also published on other social networks. In the first week alone, the video is said to have been clicked 2.5 million times.
