FSB detected over 40 foreign agents in 2003

In 2003 the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia caught red-handed five foreign agents, FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev said to Russian media bosses Friday.

Patrushev's statement was timed for Day of Russian Security Agents marked on December 20th annually. On this day in 1918 the first Soviet special service - the Emergencies Commission for the Fight Against Counter-Revolution and Subversion - was formed.

According to Patrushev, "espionage and other subversion activities" of 14 agents and also 37 spies of foreign countries, including two Russian citizens, were thwarted.