US seeks to crack Putin power with high-level Russian spies

The U.S. and its allies are looking to exploit cracks in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s power base by recruiting high-level Russian officials to spy for the West. 

The effort is taking on new urgency following the shocking but short-lived rebellion by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former Putin ally who turned his private military Wagner Group against the Kremlin late last month. 

CIA Director William Burns, in his call for recruits among the Russian elite, has said the schism has presented a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to exploit cracks in Moscow’s upper echelon.

“I think Putin is already a little bit uneasy as he looks over his shoulder,” Burns said in remarks to the Aspen Security Forum Thursday. 

The CIA director’s comments follow a rare speech earlier this week by the chief of the U.K.’s foreign intelligence service, MI6, that echoed the call for Russians who are “appalled” by Putin’s war in Ukraine to reach out to Western intelligence. 

“There are many Russians today who are silently appalled by the sight of their armed forces pulverizing Ukrainian cities, expelling innocent families from their homes, and kidnapping thousands of children,” MI6 Chief Richard Moore said in a Wednesday speech in Prague.

​​”I invite them to do what others have already done this past 18 months and join hands with us. Our door is always open,” he added.

The public remarks build on earlier efforts by intelligence agencies, particularly the CIA and FBI, to appeal to Russians disaffected by Putin’s war.

Burns said a CIA video released on Telegram in May telling Russians how they could discreetly contact the spy agency reached 2.5 million views in its first week.

The Russian-language video depicts fictional Russians grappling with a decision to contact the CIA and demonstrates how using portals on the dark web can help shield their communications from surveillance. 

The messaging app is one of the most widely used social media tools in Russia, where other sites — like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram — are blocked.

“In today’s Russia, it remains very difficult to speak out, and telling the truth often carries serious consequences,” a CIA official, granted anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, told The Hill. 

“CIA wants to know the truth about Russia, and we are looking for trustworthy people who can tell it to us and with whom we can communicate securely,” they said. 

The goal is to reach Russian officials who serve in critical fields — such as the military, intelligence services, scientific research and technology — or business associates who are connected to these industries.  

“People may also be unaware that what they know is of great value to us,” the official said. 

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“We’re interested in advanced science, military and cyber technology, financial information, sources of valuable data and foreign policy secrets,” the official added, noting that information on senior leadership and the Russian economy is also prized.  

Russians making the choice to oppose Putin and his government face enormous dangers. 

Yana Gorokhovskaia, research director with the nonprofit organization Freedom House, said that Russia’s erasure of nearly all political freedoms has made speaking out in any way extremely dangerous.

“There is very little room to agitate, and the Kremlin has punished people very severely for speaking out in any way against the war, including making very anodyne comments that this is a war, that Russian soldiers shouldn’t be dying in this way — people are getting prison sentences,” she said. “The cost of speaking out is much higher now than it was 20 years ago.” 

Clandestine and public opponents of the government have been targets of assassination attempts and exorbitant prison sentences.

In 2018, Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence official who acted as a double agent for the U.K., survived a poisoning attempt by Russian security services in the British city of Bristol.

In April, Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza was convicted of treason and sentenced to 25 years in prison for opposing Russia’s war in Ukraine, a sentence criticized by the State Department as an act of repression by the Kremlin. 

And imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who survived an alleged assassination attempt in August 2020, currently faces a 20-year jail sentence on charges of extremism that he and his supporters criticize as attempts to silence dissent.  

“Everyone in Russia knows that he who seeks justice in court is completely defenseless,” Navalny said in a statement from prison that was read by his supporters. 

“Disputes are resolved by bargaining, authority, bribery, deceit, betrayal and other real-life mechanisms, not by some kind of law.”

Burns, in his remarks in Aspen, called Putin “the ultimate apostle of payback” and quipped that Prigozhin — who is believed to be in exile in Belarus as part of a deal with Putin that ended the rebellion — should keep his food taster on salary.

Putin’s paranoia also appears to extend to those close to him. Russia’s top general, Sergei Surovikin, has disappeared from public view after it was reported he may have had advanced knowledge of Prighozin’s mutiny plans.

“An atmosphere of paranoia is very bad for any organization — you don’t share information properly, you don’t trust people, you fire people, etc,” Daniel Byman, senior fellow with the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in an email to The Hill. 

“There are probably many Russian officials who are upset about the war, may have a tougher financial situation (and thus be more open to financial inducements), or are otherwise more willing to consider spying than in the past. So there could be potential walk-ins,” he said. 

But Byman added that even if the spy recruitment effort fails, “the perception being created is that there are a lot of potential US/UK etc. spies or potential spies.”

The CIA’s recruitment pitch does not explicitly include financial benefits, although the State Department’s “Rewards for Justice” program provides significant compensation for actionable intelligence for a basket of U.S. national security priorities.

However, the main selling point seems to be affecting change and exercising influence.

MI6 Chief Moore said that the goal of the U.K.’s intelligence services is to recruit Russians who can “help us to bring the bloodshed in Ukraine to an end,” not necessarily about overthrowing Putin. 

“There’s nothing to do about what’s going on in Russia. What happens in Russia is down to Russians ultimately,” Moore said in an interview with Politico following his speech. 

Burns, in his remarks in Aspen, said the U.S. and U.K. are “aimed at the same objective,” but the CIA official who spoke to The Hill said the agency also wants to know what is happening inside Russia. 

“We remain intently focused on gaining information on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but we also recognize that that invasion is a symptom of broader issues in the Russian system, and so we’re seeking broader information on Russia as well.” 

And what can someone expect when they make the decision to reach out to the CIA?

“We would say, please be patient. We thank you for your brave action and we will choose the safest time and manner to respond,” the official said.