Also at the lecture on Saturday, Burns said the armed mutiny by mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was a challenge to the Russian state that had shown the corrosive effect of President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
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But Burns said that disaffection in Russia with the war in Ukraine was creating a rare opportunity to recruit spies – and the CIA was not letting it pass.
“Disaffection with the war will continue to gnaw away at the Russian leadership beneath the steady diet of state propaganda and practised repression,” Burns said.
“That disaffection creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us at the CIA – at our core a human intelligence service.
“We’re not letting it go to waste,” he added, noting the CIA recently posted on Telegram to let Russians know how to reach the CIA via the dark web.
“We had 2.5 million views in the first week, and we’re very much open for business.”
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
