Russian President Vladimir Putin appreciates spy agency after US hack controversy

A few days after the US alleged Russia of hacking into its systems of government departments, Russia's President Vladimir Putin has patted the back of the country's intelligence service.

Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service has completed 100 years of its establishment, and speaking on the occasion, Putin recognised the intelligence agency as an essential part of the country's security system and claimed it was a crucial assurance of Russia's "sovereign, democratic, independent development".

"I know what I'm talking about here," Putin said, in comments shared on the Kremlin website. "And I rate very highly the difficult professional operations that have been conducted."

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"The most serious attention must be paid to information security, to the fight against extremism and against corruption," he added.

This statement has come a few days after several government departments of the US observed a breach in their systems. The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had alleged Russia's involvement in this major hack of the government's and Mircosoft's systems.

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Kremlin, however, has as usual denied these accusations and has maintained its stance on the allegations made against Russia on any hacking attack or breach of privacy in the West.

However, bypassing the accusation, Putin addressed the attendees of the Day of the Security Services Worker talked about the importance of developing the work of counterintelligence agencies. Putin, who was once a member of KGB, asked his fellow Russian spies to pay more attention to the risks being posed by conflicts "simmering" near the country's borders — referring to the ongoing clash Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, and anti-government protests in Belarus.

"I expect that the Foreign Intelligence Service will continue to respond flexibly to the highly changeable international context, actively participating in identifying and neutralising potential threats to Russia, and improving the quality of its analytical materials," Putin said