A top Russian security official said in an article published on Friday that Moscow had “neutralised” hundreds of foreign spies in the recent years. A Russian official has claimed that Moscow has “neutralised” hundreds of foreign spies and individuals involved in intelligence and subversive activities against Russia and its close allies in the recent years
Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, wrote in the Russia’s foreign intelligence agency’s house magazine: “In recent years, hundreds of employees of foreign intelligence services, as well as other persons involved in organising intelligence and subversive activities against our country and our strategic partners, have been identified and neutralised”.
Patrushev is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a former director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) who is seen as a key advocate of hardline, hawkish policies within the Kremlin.