Putin's Spokesman Responds to CIA Efforts to Recruit Russians  

Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, mocked the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on Tuesday for posting a video that attempts to recruit Russian intelligence officers to work as double agents.

The CIA posted the video on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Telegram on Monday. The Russian-language clip is designed as a message to Russian intelligence agents, trying to convince them to work with the U.S. by addressing the alleged corruption of Putin's government.

The Russian state news agency Tass reported that Peskov joked that the CIA should have posted the video on VKontakte, a social media platform that is widely used in Russia.

"Somebody should tell the CIA that VKontakte is much more popular here than the banned X, and that VKontakte has a much larger audience," Peskov said.

Newsweek reached out to the Kremlin via email on Tuesday for comment.

Monday's post is not the first time the CIA has attempted to recruit Russian double agents. In May 2023, the agency posted a similar video to social media platforms that targeted citizens in Russia who were against the war in Ukraine or were dissatisfied with life in their country.

Peskov also addressed the previous video, telling reporters in May that he had not paid attention to it but said he was "convinced that our special services are monitoring this space in the necessary way."

"We all know perfectly well that the CIA and other Western intelligence services are not reducing their activity on the territory of our country," Peskov said at the time, according to Tass.

While Peskov shrugged off the videos, the CIA reports finding success with the campaign.

"We are seeing more outreach from Russians as a result of the videos," a CIA official told Newsweek.

Reuters provided an English translation of portions of the new CIA recruitment video. The news agency wrote the clip features a man depicting an unnamed employee of a Russian military intelligence agency "who casts himself as a patriot who loves Russia and once served as a paratrooper."

"Do I have enough courage to confront this betrayal?" the man says in the video, per Reuters, as he looks at photographs in his dimly lit dwelling.

Images of luxury cars, a bag of money and well-dressed people toasting glasses then flash across the screen.

The speaker continues: "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. Our people are forced to give bribes to simply find work."

The clip ends with the man standing outside in the snow while contacting the CIA on his cellphone.

A CIA spokesperson told Newsweek the video shows how many Russians are "forced to sacrifice so much and contend with so many difficulties right now."

CIA Deputy Director David Cohen also addressed the video's message while speaking at the International Spy Museum on Monday, calling it "basically a pitch to folks in Russia who are dissatisfied with the regime, who see a better future for Russia, one that frankly we can help them achieve if they work for us."