Senior Moscow Official Says Russia Has Neutralized Hundreds of Foreign Intelligence Agents

Nikolai Patrushev. (Wikimedia Commons/Secretary of Defense)

JAKARTA - A top Russian security official said in an article published on Friday that Moscow had "neutralized" hundreds of foreign spies in recent years.

This was stated by Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev in a Russian intelligence magazine, who also called Russia a magnet for countering Western parasitic practices.

"In recent years, hundreds of employees of foreign intelligence agencies, as well as other people involved in organizing intelligence and subversive activities against our country and our strategic partners, have been identified and neutralized," he said as reported by Reuters on September 15.

Separately, Patrushev said, Russia has become a magnet that attracts all those who want to confront the parasitic ways of the West.

"Russia has become a center of attraction for all those who are ready to oppose Western practices of parasitism, because we offer an alternative path," he said, citing TASS.

Patrushev pointed out that Russia is open to cooperation with all constructive-minded countries, as well as social and political forces that are ready to move forward together on the path of development and lay the foundations for a new, truly democratic, multipolar world order.

"Most countries are ready to work together in advancing this trend," he stressed.

It is known that Patrushev is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He once served as Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), seen as a key proponent of hardline and hawkish policies in the Kremlin.