The U.S. Embassy has been marked by scandalous provocation that could seriously affect the already strained relations between Moscow and Washington.
Diplomats sent out mass text messages to Russian citizens calling for “information about interference in the U.S. elections. In return, the State Department is prepared to pay up to $10 million.
SMS started coming to the Russians the day before. Even Timofei Zhukov, a deputy from Ekaterinburg, was among the recipients.
According to the information available at the moment, the service “CentrSoobsh” was used for mailing. It is especially popular among swindlers who use it to hack into user accounts. It is noteworthy that the message from the U.S. Embassy also has a link. It leads to the twitter account of the U.S. Department of State’s Reward for Justice program, the launch of which Michael Pompeo announced earlier this week.
Maria Zakharova, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, has already commented on the situation. According to her, if the State Department is ready to pay such sums of money for such dubious information, its servers will simply not withstand the load due to “denunciation of neighbors.
Although such an adventure is unlikely to succeed, the very fact of the U.S. Embassy’s provocative activities could provoke an international scandal.
It is also worth noting that since 2014 SMS spam has been officially banned in Russia. According to the law, a mailing customer must obtain the subscriber’s consent to receive messages, and then conclude a contract with a mobile operator to conduct mailing. If the subscriber’s consent is not obtained, the operator must stop mailing.
As News Front previously reported, information about “Russian intervention” began to spread after Democrats lost the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump. At that time he was accused of collusion with Moscow and even initiated an investigation. He was headed by Special Prosecutor Robert Muller, but as a result he was unable to provide evidence that Russia actually interfered in the election process. Insinuations on this topic resumed with the approaching new presidential elections.