MOSCOW, December 19. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has told a news conference that he is against "purges" in the law enforcement agencies, but believes that their operation needs improvement and public control.

"As far as purges are concerned, we’ve been through this in our not very long distant past. And it looks like we should better have no more of them again," Putin said. At the same time he believes that the operation of the law enforcement must be improved and controlled by the public.

"This is quite obvious," he said.

All law enforcement agencies have their own internal security divisions. Putin believes that all of them are rather effective. He disagreed with claims the law enforcement organizations were adamant not to lose face under any circumstance.

"It is totally incorrect. True, there may be situations in which bosses try to cover up somebody, but let me say once again that internal security units are rather effective and a considerable number of criminal cases - there are many of them - which are opened against law enforcement personnel, are based on checks carried out by internal security units," Putin said.