MOSCOW, Feb 24 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday ordered the FSB security service to step up protection of Russia’s energy and transport infrastructure in response to Ukrainian attacks that he said were conducted with the help of Western intelligence.
Putin, speaking on the fourth anniversary of the war, said Russia’s enemies would regret it if they pushed Moscow too far.
“They did not manage to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield, so the enemy is relying on individual and mass terror: this includes shelling cities, sabotaging infrastructure, and assassination attempts on government and military officials,” he told an audience of FSB officials.
“There is an absolute need to defeat Russia. They are looking for any way, anything at all. They will push themselves to some extreme point, and then they will regret it,” he said.
Ukraine has repeatedly attacked Russian oil depots, refineries and ports in the course of the war, and Moscow blames it for a series of assassinations of senior military figures.
Putin, in televised remarks, suggested that Russian energy pipelines under the Black Sea could be targeted.
He issued an order to “strengthen the anti-terrorist protection of energy and transport infrastructure and public gathering places, provide maximum coverage for critical facilities, and, if necessary, equip them with additional security measures.”
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov, Writing by Mark Trevelan Editing by Andrew Osborn)
