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Moscow, Russia:
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday hailed the nation’s “courageous” spies as he visited the headquarters of the Foreign Intelligence Service to mark its 100th birthday.
Putin, who has spent many of the coronavirus epidemic at his residences exterior the Russian capital and on the Black Sea, visited the SVR headquarters in southern Moscow amid the controversy surrounding the work of the nation’s safety providers.
SVR, Russia’s exterior intelligence company, which succeeded the First Chief Directorate of the KGB in 1991, marks its centenary on Sunday. But December 20 can be the day in Russia when the nation fetes all members of the safety providers together with these from the FSB home intelligence company.
Speaking exterior the SVR headquarters, Putin, himself a former KGB officer, thanked all those that shield Russia from “external and internal threats” and referred to as them “reliable and courageous people.”
“Efficient work of security bodies, which is governed by law and national interests, always was and will be exceptionally important for Russia,” he mentioned.
“It’s one of the most important guarantees of the sovereign, democratic and independent development of our multinational society,” Putin added.
The 66-year-old Kremlin chief praised the work of SVR which he mentioned influenced the course of historical past of each Russia and the world.
He mentioned he counted on the exterior intelligence to proceed to counter “potential threats” towards Russia however in a uncommon public rebuke additionally mentioned the service ought to “increase the quality of its analytical papers.”
Addressing members of the FSB home intelligence and different anti-terror providers, Putin mentioned they need to proceed to behave “decisively”.
“It’s also necessary to build on the current successes when it comes to work of counter-intelligence,” he added.
Putin praised Russian safety brokers after an investigative report claimed this week that members of the FSB intelligence have been behind the poisoning of high opposition chief Alexei Navalny with Novichok, a Soviet-designed nerve agent.
Putin dismissed the joint report led by the investigative web site Bellingcat, saying that if the Russian safety providers had wished to poison Navalny, “they would have taken it to the end.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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