The Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia said that Ukrainian special services recruit Russian citizens under the cover of the American think tank RAND Corporation, TASS reported.
„The FSB received information that representatives of the Ukrainian special services use the cover of the influential American RAND Corporation for recruitment on the territory of Russia and for obtaining data of a limited nature for conducting Russia's special military operation in Ukraine“, the FSB Public Relations Center reported.
„It has been established that representatives of the Ukrainian special services are contacting Russian citizens via popular Internet messengers on Russian territory, preferably – related to military service, with proposals for cooperation with the American company RAND Corporation, added the Russian Federal Security Service. They indicated that sums starting at $100 were offered for information.
According to the FSB, during the communication, the Ukrainian agents presented themselves as employees of the CIS department of the Eastern European center of “RAND Europe“.
A video attached by the FSB shows screenshots and an audio recording of a conversation between an employee of a Russian law enforcement agency and an alleged employee of the Ukrainian special services, who is allegedly acting under the cover of the RAND Corporation, who goes by the name Dmitry.
“The purpose of the contacts is to obtain secret data on the combat use of Russian strategic aviation, the number and location of units of the Russian armed forces participating in the special military operation in Ukraine“, the FSB noted.
In the video, when asked what data exactly is of interest, the alleged employee of the Ukrainian special services answers, that it is about “organizational staff structure, level of provision, combat and numerical composition, means of destruction and means of radio-electronic warfare“.