MOSCOW

Russia’s intelligence chief said on Thursday that the US has organized a special program for Russian alumni of American exchange programs to train them for disruptive activities in the country’s presidential election, scheduled for March 17.

Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, said in a statement that the first seminar in the series will take place on Feb. 16-18 in Latvia’s capital Riga.

“The main focus will be on training participants in methods of inciting ethnic and social hatred, interfering in elections, and discrediting the leadership of the Russian Federation on social networks,” Naryshkin said.

According to him, “special attention” will be paid to the issues of working out secure communication with American “mentors” — “intelligence officers working at the US embassies in Moscow and Riga under the guise of diplomatic posts.”

“Washington also hopes to involve the alumni in the preparation of new mechanisms for sanctions pressure on Russia,” he said.

Naryshkin stressed intelligence shows that as the Russian presidential election approaches, the US authorities are “inventing more and more sophisticated ways of illegally interfering in democratic procedures.”