Russian President Vladimir Putin this Friday defended the need to ensure internal political security in Russia, despite increased efforts to endanger it.
Opening a meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Putin suggested discussing “the guarantee of Russian security, in this case internal political security,” according to a report by Russian agencies TASS and Ria Novosti. .
Putin cited the efforts that those who wish to harm Russia are making and intensifying “to stir up the situation in the Russian Federation”.
“We have to do everything we can to prevent them from doing that under any circumstances,” he said, without the two agencies specifying who he was referring to.
He also said the debate would focus on inter-ethnic relations, which he considered extremely important in a country of 190 ethnic groups, Ria Novosti added.
According to the same Russian news agency, the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov, and the interior minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev will give presentations at the meeting.
Russia has been at war with Ukraine since it invaded the neighboring country on February 24, 2022.
After more than 15 months of fighting, the number of casualties is unknown to either side.
The conflict seems far from over and there is internal criticism of the Defense Ministry, including from an ally of Putin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
In recent days, two armed groups, the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Legion of Freedom for Russia, have launched raids on Russian territory from Ukraine.
Their respective leaders say the two groups are made up of Russians seeking to overthrow Putin’s regime, but Moscow claims they are Ukrainians.
In a message released Thursday, the Freedom Legion for Russia said it intended to “liberate all of Russia from Belgorod to Vladivostok”.
Belgorod is a Russian region on the border with Ukraine and Vladivostok is located in the far east of the vast country, bordering China and North Korea.
The two groups have been fighting Russian troops alongside the Ukrainian army for months.
The Kiev government claims to have nothing to do with the actions of these groups on Russian territory, but tolerates their operations on Ukrainian territory.
Source: DN
