Putin on CIA agents in Russia: "I’ve cleaned all of them out"
Russia's President Vladimir Putin reveals how foreign agents tried to control Russian affairs, how he thwarted their attempts in early 2000, and how Russia became sovereign and independent.
Russian President Vladimir Putin explained Thursday how he rid the Russian government of foreign intelligence agents in the early 2000s, especially CIA agents.
"In mid-1990s, we had Central Intelligence Agency employees as advisors and even official employees of the government of the Russian Federation, as we learned later," Putin revealed at the Council for Civil Society and Human Rights meeting.
The Russian president indicated that during that time, the CIA agents, which he "cleaned all of them out," held positions in Russia while also working in the US, where they "violated the US law and took part in the privatization."
"There were American specialists sitting at our nuclear weapons complex sites," he said.
"They did not need any fine instruments to interfere in our life, because they had control over everything already."
Putin mentioned that "this is only one example" of how foreign agencies tried to interfere in Russian internal affairs, but "in reality, they are much more numerous."
The president assured that "the situation has changed, the country became different, it became more independent, more sovereign; its armed forces’ capabilities are growing and the attitude towards Russia began to change."
It is noteworthy that a few days ago, Russian security services announced the arrest of three Ukrainian spies, one of whom was preparing an attack with explosives.