Putin orders his FSB agents to crack down on 'scum' who oppose him

Putin orders his FSB agents to crack down on ‘scum’ who oppose him and raise their game in tackling Western spies and saboteurs

• Putin said the FSB had to counter what he said was increasing espionage
• The Russian despot headed the FSB until 1999, just before he became president

Vladimir Putin today ordered his FSB counterintelligence service to crackdown on Russian ‘scum’ who oppose him.

The despot was addressing the security agency’s college in Moscow amid the brutal war with Ukraine which has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

‘It’s necessary to identify and stop the illegal activities of those who are trying to divide and weaken our society; to use separatism, nationalism, neo-Nazism and xenophobia as weapons,’ he claimed.

Putin said Russia had always experienced such activity. ‘And now the attempts, of course, are at their most active. Attempts to activate all this scum on our land.’

Putin also called for the domestic security service to step up its activity to counter what he said was increasing espionage against Russia by Ukraine and the West.

Vladimir Putin was addressing the security agency’s college in Moscow today amid the brutal war with Ukraine

In a speech to officials, Putin said the FSB had to stop ‘sabotage groups’ entering Russia from Ukraine, step up protection of infrastructure, and prevent Western security services reviving what he called terrorist or extremist cells inside Russia.

Putin, who headed the FSB before becoming Russian prime minister and then president, said: ‘It is necessary to identify and suppress the illegal activity of those who are trying to split, weaken our society.’

‘Western intelligence services have traditionally always been active in Russia, and now they have thrown additional personnel, technical and other resources at us. We need to respond accordingly.’

He instructed the FSB to prevent illegal weapons flows into Russia, and to strengthen security in four regions of Ukraine that Moscow has partially seized and claimed as its own – a move most countries at the United Nations have condemned as illegal.

The FSB needs to strengthen all its counter-intelligence activity, Putin told the agency that he once headed.

‘Significant information about the control systems of our military and law enforcement structures, defence industry enterprises, critical technologies and personal data must be reliably protected,’ he said, stressing the importance of secrecy around the latest Russian weapons and equipment.

The president did not mention any specific intelligence failures, but his comments implied concern about potential vulnerabilities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Director of Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov attend a meeting of the service’s collegium in Moscow today

Federal Security Service (FSB) director Alexander Bortnikov listens as Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his speech today

In the year since he launched his invasion of Ukraine, Russia has seen drone strikes on its own territory, hacking of pro-government media and the assassination last August of the daughter of a prominent nationalist who endorsed the war.

Activists claim to have carried out dozens of attacks on railway infrastructure aimed at disrupting military traffic.

Details are hard to verify, but the FSB said this month it had detained three Russians involved in ‘terrorist acts’ on railway infrastructure in the Urals region.

In the latest example of cyber disruption, the emergencies ministry said hackers had on Tuesday caused regional broadcasters to issue false alerts telling people to take cover in bomb shelters.

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