Page 9 - ARUBA TODAY

A9
WORLD NEWS Thursday 21 december 2017

Russian spy agencies prevented 60 terror attacks, Putin says

agencies such as the KGB rights groups, Memorial,
were an “inalienable part said that the celebrations
of our history.” of the Cheka’s anniversary
Putin served with the KGB represented “the mockery
for 16 years and briefly of the memory of millions of
headed the main state se- victims” of Soviet-era purg-
curity agency that followed es. “It’s a shame of today’s
it, the Federal Security Ser- Russia,” it said in a state-
vice, or FSB, before his as- ment.
cent to the presidency. He Putin made no reference to
said in his speech that “no such criticism in his holiday
matter how the times were speech, praising Russian
changing, the majority of security agencies for “out-
people who chose that dif- foxing foreign intelligence
ficult profession were true services and dealing blows
patriots and defenders of to organized crime and
the state.” corruption.”
Earlier Wednesday, Ma- The Russian leader under-
ria Alekhina, a member lined that the fight against
of the Russian punk band terrorism is a top priority,
Pussy Riot, was detained noting that Russia would
after she unfurled a banner continue working to “reso-
that read “Happy Birthday, lutely neutralize hotbeds
Hangmen!” outside the of international terrorism”
Moscow headquarters of following its campaign in
President Vladimir Putin, second right, Sergei Naryshkin, head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence
Service, second left, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, left, Federal Security Service (FSB) Director the FSB. Syria.
Alexander Bortnikov, attend meeting with intelligence officers on their professional holiday in Alekhina and Pussy Riot “It’s necessary to strength-
Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017. bandmate Nadezhda Tolo- en both external and in-
(Mikhail Klimentyev, Kremlin via AP) konnikova spent nearly two ternal security contours
By V. ISACHENKOV sional holiday Wednesday, ing the 100th anniversary of years in prison for an anti- protecting Russia from
Associated Press saying they have thwarted the creation of the Bolshe- Putin protest inside Mos- terrorism, conduct work
MOSCOW (AP) — President more than 60 terror attacks vik secret police, the Che- cow’s Cathedral of Christ to uproot the criminals’ fi-
Vladimir Putin hailed Rus- in Russia this year. ka, Putin emphasized that the Savior in 2012. nancial and recruitment
sian spies on their profes- In a Kremlin speech mark- it and Soviet-era successor One of Russia’s top human networks.q
Catalonia’s divided residents head to the polls again

By KARL RITTER public is adorned only with polarized by this fall’s dra- rather, against those who to govern my country.” The
Associated Press Christmas decorations. matic events. don’t, because he finds other side has also been
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) The movement’s leaders Friendships have been bro- them complicit in Spain’s galvanized. Catalans who
— In Barcelona, Catalo- are in jail or have fled the ken, families split. Many crackdown. oppose independence
nia’s cosmopolitan capital, country after staging a Catalans who had mixed During the October ref- previously kept a low pro-
there is no sign of the inde- brazen Oct. 1 referendum feelings about indepen- erendum, Spanish police file. Coming out as a union-
pendent country that the on secession that was de- dence, or didn’t care used rubber bullets and ist, they say, would have
region’s former leaders pro- clared illegal by Spain’s about the issue much, now truncheons against voters, resulted in scorn, insults
claimed with great fanfare government and highest feel compelled to take a who formed human barriers and even accusations of
nearly two months ago. court. position. to keep them out of polling treason from pro-indepen-
The Spanish flag still flies But as voters return to the Gabriel Brau, a 50-year-old stations. “What happened dence friends and neigh-
alongside the Catalan one polls Thursday — this time photographer with little in- on Oct. 1 affected me in a bors. But in the aftermath of
above the regional govern- to elect a new regional terest in politics, said he will powerful way,” Brau said. the referendum they for the
ment building. The square government in an election vote for the first time since “I was thinking, ‘What if first time gathered for mass
where a jubilant crowd called by Spain as a way the 1980s, and it will be for they did that to my son?’ rallies similar in size to those
celebrated what it thought out of the crisis — Cata- one of the parties that fa- That is not democracy. ... achieved by the indepen-
was the birth of a new re- lonia has been left deeply vors independence. Or I don’t want these people dence movement.q