Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that "neutralizing operations of foreign intelligence services" is a main task of the Federal Security Services (FSB), urging Russian security officials to work harder in the field.

Meeting with high-ranking security officials in the Kremlin, Putin said that ensuring economic security and fighting crime should also be among the top priorities for the FSB, the main successor of the Soviet KGB.

"Among the Federal Security Service's priority tasks, besides the neutralization of foreign special services' intelligence operations, are guaranteeing the country's economic and financial security, and the struggle against organized crime," Interfax newsagency cited Putin as saying.

Putin's remarks came after the recent reshuffle of Russia's security and military leadership following a series of simultaneous rebel attacks against law enforcement facilities in Russia's Ingushetia republic bordering the breakaway Chechnya.

Putin instructed the senior security officials to "draw very serious conclusions" from the armed attacks in Ingushetia that killed 90 people and the terrorist attacks in Chechnya that keeps claiming lives almost on a daily basis.

He called on Russia's security agencies, police and military towork better together.

"The most crucial task is to ensure clearer and more effective cooperation between the Federal Security Service, the Interior Ministry and the Defense Ministry," Putin was quoted as saying.

Source: Xinhua