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Some foreign countries and organizations saw Russia's North Caucasus as a springboard for anti-Russian activities, President Vladimir Putin said Monday.
"We are confronted by destructive anti-Russian activities on the part of some foreign countries and public and international organizations under their control. As before, they see the North Caucasus as a springboard for destabilizing the situation in Russia," Putin told a Russian Security Council meeting.
Putin did not specify the countries or organizations but said they had been attempting to inflict harm on the Russian economy, denigrate Russia's influence and limit its presence in the global arena.
"We must curb such attempts more rigorously and always provide an adequate response," the Interfax news agency quoted Putin as saying.
The president warned the situation in the North Caucasus remained a challenge for state security.
"Despite evident positive developments, the situation in the North Caucasus has been improving too slowly. The terrorist threat and challenges to security have not been entirely removed," Putin said.
He said all law enforcement structures must be mobilized to maintain law, order and public peace in that region, which embraces several ethnic republics.
The North Caucasus has witnessed chronic tensions in recent decades, with frequent terror attacks against government facilities and officials.
Last month alone, a high-ranking security official in the North Caucasian republic of Ingushetia was shot dead and a policeman was killed and three others injured in crossfire with militants in Dagestan. In 2009, Ingush head Yunus-Bek Yevkurov sustained grave injuries in a car bomb attack.
