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The President congratulated the security agency officers on their professional holiday. Addressing an official function in the State Kremlin Palace, Mr Putin stressed that the main task of national secret services was to protect the constitutional rights of Russian citizens.

The President said that secret service officers had great powers and that Russian citizens must make sure that they used those powers in accordance with the law. The head of state stressed that there must be no grounds for accusing the secret services of being biased and of following politically motivated orders.

Mr Putin said that economic-security measures were a top priority of secret service operations, and that over 2.5 billion roubles had been returned to the state and losses exceeding $1 billion had been prevented.

The Russian President said secret service operations were extremely risky and thanked all those involved in the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya.