America is trying to seize the slightest opportunity to shake up the situation in Russia ahead of election, Sergey Naryshkin said
Washington is planning to use Russian graduates from student-exchange programs in the US to meddle with the presidential election this March, the head of the country’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergey Naryshkin has said.
Over the years, some 80,000 Russian students have traveled to the US under such programs as Access, Advance, Summer Work and Travel, FLEX, Fulbright, Global UGRAD and other programs, Naryshkin told the media on Thursday.
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![FILE PHOTO: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin.](https://mf.b37mrtl.ru/files/2023.12/thumbnail/65901da620302765e87724dd.jpg)
“In advance of the presidential election in Russia, the Americans are seizing on even the slightest opportunity to shake up the internal political situation in our country,” he said, adding that this includes “intensifying work” with Russian graduates of these exchange programs.
According to the spy chief, the US authorities believe that with “the right preparation” these graduates are capable of becoming “the core of the fifth column” in Russia and replace members of the opposition, many of whom had fled abroad after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine.
Washington plans to actively involve these graduates “in the political struggle against the Russian authorities,” he stressed.
A special training program has already been developed for them, focusing on teaching its students “the methods of inciting inter-ethnic and social hatred, of interfering in elections and discrediting Russia’s leadership on social media,” Nasryshkin said. A lot of attention will be paid to establishing secure communications between the graduates and their American “curators,” he added.