Behind The Message Of The Russian President To His Intelligence To Be Ready To Protect The Country

Russian President Vladimir Putin (Twitter / KremlinRussia_E)

JAKARTA - Russian President Vladimir Putin advised his intelligence to always protect the country. The appeal came after the United States (US) accused Russia of being behind a massive hacking into the country.

Putin announced this on Monday, December 21, at a ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the foreign intelligence agency, SVR. He also added that the agency and other security services are important guarantees of sovereign, democratic and independent development.

"I know what I'm talking about here," Putin said, in comments shared on the Kremlin website. "And I highly value the difficult professional operation that has been done."

"The most serious attention should be paid to information security, to combat extremism and fight corruption," he added.

In addition, Putin also appealed to intelligence members to immediately pay special attention to the risks posed by conflict near the country's borders. For example, the conflict that occurred between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh.

"I hope that the Intelligence Service will continue to respond flexibly to the very changing international context, actively participate in identifying and neutralizing potential threats to Russia, and improving the quality of its analytical materials," Putin said.

Previously, several international cyber researchers stated that Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service was suspected of being behind a hacking attack on the US. As a result, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last Friday Russia was responsible for the attack. However, Russia denies this.