MOSCOW, December 20. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed the need to effectively protect its state border given the risks of smoldering conflicts in neighboring countries.

"We need to ensure a more effective protection of the state border, moreover given the risks of smoldering regional conflicts near our borders," Putin highlighted during a visit to the Foreign Intelligence Service’s headquarters.

Putin ordered to pay serious attention to information security, fight against extremism, corruption and economic crimes.

In their turn, staff members of the Federal Protective Service should continue effectively ensuring security of state facilities and vital events, while the Main Directorate of Special Programs should handle "a broad range of tasks on boosting stability of work of key state bodies and communications systems in any and even the most challenging situation," he said.

Struggle against terrorism

Russia’s intelligence services should continue a resolute struggle against terrorism, which has made it possible to significantly cut the number of such crimes, Russian President noted.

According to Putin, the number of terrorism-related crimes in Russia over the past years has significantly decreased. Just two such crimes were registered in the past 11 months of this year compared with 36 in 2015.

"A huge everyday dangerous and hard work and its new quality are behind this statistics. The staff of the Federal Security Service and other services under the auspices of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee should continue acting in the same resolute and consistent way," he stated.

Putin also compared the current situation not only with the mid-1990s and early 2000s, but also with 2010, when some 779 terrorism-related crimes were recorded in Russia.

The Russian people "have a score to settle with" international terrorism, Putin noted. "We remember everyone who died defending Russia against this harsh enemy, which our country faced at the most challenging time of its history," the president stated.