US intelligence uses "Facebook", "Twitter" and "Google" to recruit Russian spies

The FBI is targeting the recruitment of Russian-speaking individuals resentful of the war in Ukraine with ads appearing in social media on cell phones located in or near outside the Russian Embassy in Washington.

The Washington Post says the ads, which appear on Facebook, Twitter and Google, are "carefully geographically targeted".

To test this, the newspaper's reporter who was standing next to the embassy on Wednesday morning received the announcement on his Facebook page.

But the ad vanished when the reporter stood far from the embassy.

According to the Washington Post, the ads are intended to capitalize on any resentment or anger within Russian diplomatic or intelligence circles or among Russian immigrants to the United States over the war on Ukraine.

Counterintelligence experts describe the Russian war on Ukraine as "a great opportunity for US intelligence to recruit new people."

The ad campaign uses the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin to encourage people working at or visiting the embassy to speak to the FBI.

The ad quotes his idea from a meeting Putin held last month in which he publicly reprimanded his intelligence chief, Sergei Naryshkin, correcting the head of intelligence's position on Russian policy toward the breakaway eastern regions of Ukraine.

Naryshkin stuttered at the meeting and seemed unsure of what Putin wanted to say.

In Russian, the FBI announcement quoted Putin as saying: "Speak clearly, Sergey," reminding intelligence officers working at the embassy that Putin had insulted their boss.

Then the FBI ad uses Putin's words in a different way, also saying in Russian: "Speak clearly... We are ready to listen."

The text above the ad reads: "Information provided to the FBI by the public is the most effective means of combating threats. If you have information that can help the FBI, please contact us."

Two sources said on Wednesday that a veteran aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin had resigned over the Ukraine war and had left Russia with no intention of returning, the first senior official to disagree with the Kremlin since Putin ordered the war a month ago.

The Kremlin confirmed that Anatoly Chubis left the post of special envoy of the Kremlin voluntarily for reasons of his own.

Showbis turned off his phone when contacted by Reuters, and the two sources did not say where he was.

Scheubes was one of the main planners of economic reforms under Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, and was Putin's manager in his first job in the Kremlin.

He held high political and business positions during the Putin era, the most recent of which was the Kremlin's special envoy for international organizations.

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