How did Russia use Ronaldo's name for espionage purposes?

Media reports have revealed a major surprise: Russian spies are using Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo's name for espionage purposes.

The British newspaper, The Sun, confirmed that spies working for Russia used Ronaldo's YouTube videos to send encrypted messages to officials in Moscow.

Details of this incident came to light when an "ordinary" couple in Germany were sentenced to prison after being convicted of spying for Russia for 23 years, during which they collected intelligence on the West.

The two spies, Andreas and Heidern Anschlag, lived in the town of Marburg, north of Frankfurt, and carried Austrian passports that were later revealed to be forged. They also claimed to be of South American origin.

The pair passed on numerous secrets to the former Soviet Union and then to Russia, including highly sensitive information about the European Union, the United Nations, and NATO, through a third spy working for the Dutch Foreign Ministry.

The employee would send them monthly documents, which would be collected in "dead mailboxes" and left on a USB drive at an agreed-upon location for later collection. However, with the development of the internet, the two spies found a new way to communicate with their supervisors in Moscow.

In 2011, the couple created a YouTube account called Aplenkuh1, and shortly thereafter, the Kremlin created its own account, "Cristiano Ronaldo Footballer," with the comments section on Ronaldo's videos dedicated to sending encrypted messages.

One comment from the spy account read, "It's a great video and the song is beautiful too," while Ronaldo's Kremlin-created account responded, "He runs and plays like the devil."

German investigators indicate that these comments served as an encrypted means of communication between the two parties, providing them with a means of concealment and cover within the vast world of YouTube.

Comments contain a specific sequence of punctuation marks that can later be converted into numbers and translated into a pre-agreed message.

German intelligence agencies tracked down the couple and raided their home in October 2011. At the time, the wife was receiving an encrypted message via a transmitter in her office, causing her to fall off her chair in shock and accidentally pull out the communication cable, according to The Sun.

In July 2013, Andreas was sentenced to six and a half years in prison, Heidern to five and a half years, and the Dutch Foreign Ministry employee to 12 years.

At the end of 2015, the two spies were suddenly released and deported to Russia, where they were given a hero's welcome by the Kremlin.

Source: The Sun