MOSCOW, October 25. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has held an operational meeting with the permanent members of the Security Council.

"Today we will discuss our work with the closest partners in the southern direction. There are a lot of issues. We have a large volume of cooperation," the head of state said at the beginning of the meeting.

Putin then passed the floor to Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov for a report.

The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Speakers of both houses of parliament Valentina Matviyenko and Vyacheslav Volodin, Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, Presidential Administration Head Anton Vaino, Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu, Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergey Naryshkin, Special Russian Presidential Representative for Environmental Protection, Ecology and Transport Sergey Ivanov.