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Putin Praises FSB For Exposing Spies

7 February 2006 -- President Vladimir Putin today praised the Federal Security Service (FSB) for the "professionalism" that he said Russia's counterintelligence service recently demonstrated in exposing foreign spies.

FSB officials recently accused four British diplomats in Russia of spying and said one of them had provided funds for NGOs.

Addressing a meeting at the FSB's headquarters in Moscow, Putin said "one may only regret the fact that the scandal cast a shadow" over Russian nongovernmental organizations.

Putin said, however, that the FSB is not to blame for that and suggested NGOs should be "more prudent" when it comes to their sources of funding.

Rights activists have dismissed accusations that they have been acting in league with spies as a campaign to discredit NGOs following the passage of a controversial law that severely restricts their activities and financing.

Putin also called on the FSB to combat terrorism resolutely. He urged them to "strike at all caves where the terrorists are hiding and eliminate [them] like rats."

(ITAR- TASS, Interfax)

Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org