Vladimir Putin has urged Russia’s FSB intelligence agency to step up its efforts to counter Western spies and prevent sabotage after a string of embarrassing security failures.
On Tuesday, the Russian leader, who was once the head of the FSB, told officials from the spy agency to be more vigilant against “sabotage groups” crossing into Russia from Ukraine.
The warning came as Russian officials reported a flurry of drone attacks along the border and deep inside Russia, with one drone crashing just 60 miles from Moscow.
Fighter jets were scrambled and the airspace over St Petersburg was also closed, in what officials later said was a missile defence drill.
Speaking to the FSB officials, Mr Putin said Western intelligence agencies “have thrown additional personnel, technical and other resources against us. We need to respond accordingly”.
“Our task is to put a wall there to keep off the sabotage groups and nip in the bud any attempts to smuggle arms and ammunition into Russia,” he said, speaking about Russia’s border with Ukraine.
Russia suffered dozens of attacks on railway infrastructure in the first months of the war, in what anti-war activists claim was a concerted effort to disrupt military traffic.
And in what was probably the most significant act of retribution on Russian soil since the start of the invasion, the daughter of Alexander Dugin, a prominent nationalist philosopher and staunch supporter of the war, was killed in a car bombing outside Moscow last summer.
‘Unidentified object’
The Kremlin accused the Ukrainian government of carrying out the attack but Kyiv never claimed responsibility.
Around 80 square miles of airspace over St Petersburg and north-western Russia was closed to civilian flights for more than an hour yesterday.
Flights from St Petersburg were grounded and planes bound for Russia’s second-largest city were diverted on Tuesday morning, as local media quoted unnamed local authorities and the military saying that the airspace was closed to chase an unidentified object that allegedly crossed into Russian airspace from the Gulf of Finland.
An unauthorised breach of the border triggered an emergency response under the code name “Carpet”, Russian media reported.
Fighter jets were heard buzzing over the centre of Vladimir Putin’s hometown, scanning the skies.
“It sounds like you’re at a military parade,” the media outlet Fontanka quoted a local resident as saying.
Russia’s Defence Ministry later refuted the reports of a breach, insisting it was holding drills involving the military and emergency services - which have not been seen near a major Russian city in years.