Foreign intelligence agencies are seeking to increase activity in Russia. This was stated by President Vladimir Putin during the final meeting of the FSB held on March 6, which summarized the activities of the department last year and identified priorities for 2019.
“We see that foreign intelligence agencies are striving to increase their activity in the Russian direction, they are seeking access to information of a political, economic, scientific and technological nature by all means. The more reliable your work should be, ”the Russian leader said. His statements on the board of the FSB leads RIA Novosti.
According to the president, foreign intelligence officers are trying to influence the events inside the Russian Federation as in former times, and “now, maybe more”.
Putin said that in 2018, the Russian counterintelligence uncovered nearly 600 agents of foreign intelligence services.
“Counterintelligence agencies acted productively and offensively last year. Thanks to the successful special operations, the activity of 129 staff members and 465 agents of foreign special services was stopped, ”the Russian president said.
Putin also noted the importance of protecting against cyber attacks against Russia. The president cited data that this activity has been growing in recent years.
“I note that over the past three years, cases of coordinated cyber attacks, that is, consisting of several related shares, have become more frequent. If in 2014-15 such attacks were recorded a little over 1,500 annually, which is also quite a lot, but in 2016 there were already 12,000, in 2017 - about 12,500, and in the past - 17,000, ”Putin said. .
- RIA News
- © Alexey Druzhinin
Fight against terrorism
During the board of the FSB, Putin called for the intensification of preventive work to combat terrorist threats. According to the president, terrorists still have the potential to prepare terrorist acts.
“As the situation shows, both in our country and in other countries, these crimes can be behind both organized groups and single fanatics who have been ideologically processed,” the Russian leader said.
He noted that it is necessary to use new forms and methods to counter such threats.
“To intensify preventive work to identify recruiters and accomplices of terrorists, block the channels of arms and money supply, stop the propaganda activities of radicals and extremists,” the president listed measures to combat terrorism.
Putin said that the number of terrorist attacks prevented in Russia remains high. Over the past three years we have been talking about 20 such situations a year. At the same time, the number of terrorist crimes in the Russian Federation has declined from 997 to 9 in 10 years.
The President stressed that Russia will always be open to close and trusting work on combating terrorism with partners from other countries, regardless of the context of current relations with them.
“Of course, it is necessary to develop cooperation, coordinate efforts with foreign colleagues. First of all, of course, with partners in the CSTO and the SCO, with colleagues from other countries. In this regard, I want to stress once again, no matter how our current relations with one or other countries evolve, Russia will always be open to the closest and most trusting work in the fight against international terrorism - a common challenge to all humanity, ”the Russian leader said.
Anti-corruption
Putin also noted that he expects the Federal Security Service to take more active steps to combat corruption. He stressed that the resources allocated to the development of the country should be protected.
The President called on state security officers to coordinate this work with specialists from the Accounts Chamber, Rosfinmonitoring and other departments.
Putin cited data on the results of the fight against corruption. According to him, the security authorities of the Russian Federation instituted 405 criminal cases in the field of anti-corruption, about 7 thousand more cases were initiated by other law enforcement agencies, according to the materials of the FSB.
At the same time, the president called on the FSB officers to promptly respond to the violation of the rights of entrepreneurs by individual representatives of law enforcement, control and supervisory bodies.
The Russian leader said that it is necessary to actively identify criminal schemes that are detrimental to the state and business, to curb abuses in the financial markets that adversely affect the entire economy of the country.
“I expect that within your authority you will also contribute to the solution of the most important task of ensuring the legitimate rights and interests of entrepreneurs and all citizens of Russia in general,” Putin concluded.
Suppression of cells
Earlier, the results of the fight against terrorism were summed up in the National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC). During the final meeting of the NAC and the Federal Operational Headquarters in December 2018, it became known that the authorities had stopped the activities of 37 terrorist cells.
“The activities of 37 terrorist cells that planned to organize terrorist acts in the territories of the republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, the Chechen Republic and the Stavropol Territory, were stopped,” said Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB, at a meeting
In addition, since the beginning of the year, 65 insurgents, including ten leaders of gangs, have been neutralized in the course of counter-terrorist operations and individual operational-combat actions. In addition to this, the security forces detained 36 ringleaders, 236 gangsters and 589 accomplices of terrorists.
Speaking about the tasks for 2019, Bortnikov noted that one of the targeted areas is to reduce the vulnerability of various objects (including crowded places) to terrorist attacks. In addition, it is necessary to increase preparedness for terrorist threats in the sea areas.