President Putin is a former KGB head

Speaking as the country marks the 80th anniversary of its counter-intelligence service, he said foreign spies had been operating against Russia in a "more aggressive, more conspiratorial and more sophisticated way".

Mr Syromolotov is the deputy chief of Russia's intelligence service, the FSB, which is the main successor of the Soviet-era KGB.

He also heads the organisation's counterintelligence arm, the DKR.

He said that 14 foreign agents had been caught red-handed by DKR personnel in the past two years, and that ten of those were staff members of foreign intelligence agencies.

Computer spying

In the same two-year period, some 260 staff members of foreign secret services were "identified and put under watch", Mr Syromolotov said.

There has also been a sharp rise in computer-related espionage, with frequent attempts to break in to secret Russian databases, he said.

Speaking about DKR involvement in the counterterrorism operation in the North Caucasus, he said that FSB operations groups, and anti-terrorist and counterintelligence subunits were constantly working in Chechnya.

"Cases have been discovered where Chechen extremists were supported by people working for the intelligence services of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iran and Pakistan", Mr Syromolotov said.