The FSB ran ads offering Russians quick cash to commit sabotage. The agency called it a ‘social experiment.’
The Sverdlovsk branch of the Russian Security Service (FSB) recently ran what it described as a “social experiment” — posting Telegram ads promising “easy money” and then asking those who responded to commit acts of sabotage.
Elena Dokuchaeva, a spokesperson for the branch, outlined the operation on the local broadcaster OTV. Users who clicked on the ads were directed to an anonymous Telegram bot. According to Dokuchaeva, in just a few hours, 28,000 people viewed the posts, 176 of whom entered the bot and pressed “start.”
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At the first stage, when the bot clarified that the income would come “not entirely by legal means,” 40 users dropped out. Those who remained were offered “several areas of work.”
“One option was courier delivery,” Dokuchaeva explained. “They were promised around 50,000–60,000 rubles (about $600 to $750) for part-time work. The second option was more serious: carrying out acts of sabotage, disabling infrastructure — with purported earnings of up to three million rubles [$37,000].”
Another 56 users exited at that point.
“In total, 10 people made it to the end,” Dokuchaeva said. She did not specify when another 70 users who had initially engaged with the bot chose to leave. “In three hours, we identified 10 people potentially ready to carry out any task for money, including sabotage.”
As Novaya Gazeta Europe noted, the same “experiment” had already been reported in November 2025 by the Telegram channel Antiterror Ural, though it drew little attention at the time. In Antiterror Ural’s post, the initiative was described as an “unprecedented experimental project” carried out by Antiterror Ural in cooperation with the city outlet Inburg and with the support of the regional FSB.
According to that account, the ads — designed to mimic offers of quick, anonymous ways to make money — were circulated over the course of a week, from November 19 to 26, 2025. The channel said that information on the 10 users who reached the final stage had been passed on to law enforcement “for appropriate action.” What happened to them afterward remains unclear.
Cover photo: Yevhen Rozhylo / Unsplash