Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council via a video conference at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, April 29, 2022. ( Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The CIA says Russians may be trying to get in touch with the U.S. intelligence service.

The agency began a new push to promote its presence on a part of the internet accessible only through specialized tools that provide more anonymity. The CIA has a darknet site that has the same features as its regular homepage but is only accessible through a browser that has an alternative to regular browsers.

Instructions in English and Russian on how to access the darknet site appeared Monday on the CIA's social media channels. The agency wants Russians living abroad to share the instructions with their contacts inside the country.

While many Russians seem to support what the Kremlin officially calls a special military operation, long time Russia watchers think that Putin's management of the war may push away some powerful people who disagree with him. Western intelligence agencies need human sources who can offer insight into the Kremlin and conditions inside Russia, even with immense capabilities to capture communications and satellite imagery.

Our global mission demands that individuals can contact us securely from anywhere, the agency said in a statement.

A CIA official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters says the agency knows Russians are trying to reach it.

It is not safe to directly engage Americans in Russia.

The CIA's darknet site can be accessed through a browser. The Onion Router, also known as the "tor", routes internet traffic through multiple third parties to mask a user's identity and destination. The user inputs a long string of characters after they download the browser.

The typical internet user can be tracked using a variety of methods. Intelligence officers say that a potential tip will be better protected on the darknet from Russian snooping.

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory supported the creation of Tor. It's been used by people who want extra privacy, such as dissidents in authoritarian countries and people who want to circumvent firewalls and censors, as well as law enforcement and intelligence officers. Anyone seeking extra privacy can use it. It has been used by criminals.

Russians have had to find ways to get around government blocks on the internet. The use of virtual private network software has been promoted by some media outlets in response to the Kremlin's actions.

The officials would not say if the U.S. intelligence was working inside Russia. Mark Kelton, who retired from the CIA in 2015, said that calling attention to the darknet site now promotes to prospective contacts that the CIA is paying attention to their safety.

Kelton said that people are aware of what they are doing when they reach out.

The fall of the Berlin Wall has presented recruiting opportunities for intelligence services in both Washington and Moscow. Thousands of soldiers killed, sanctions that have crippled the Russian economy, and a failure to meet basic military aims are just some of the consequences of Putin's war in Ukraine.

The war failures have provoked a vicious blame game inside Russia's security establishment, wrote two well-respected Russian journalists in a recent piece.

Some of the people who refused to take the journalists calls when the war began are speaking up now.

This is the first time that the siloviki have distanced themselves from the president. They wrote, "Which opens up all sorts of possibilities."

Kelton said that personal ideology or disappointment in Putin's regime are more likely to drive someone to spy against Russia than financial rewards.

He said that crisis is a good time for espionage. That has been a good time for people to reach out to the United States.

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