Vladimir Putin has saluted Russia’s resurgent secret services for their role in guarding national interests.

“The personnel of the security services firmly stand guard for Russia’s national interests,” Putin said in a statement released as he threw a lavish party to mark the anniversary of the founding of the Soviet secret police.

Putin, who served as a KGB spy in East Germany, has promoted former security officers to high posts in the Kremlin, where they have formed one of the most powerful clans under the leadership of deputy chief-of-staff Igor Sechin, analysts say.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin split up the KGB to sap the power of the secret services. But Putin has brought spying back into fashion at the very highest levels in the Kremlin.

Spy chiefs, top politicians and former agents were shown on state television sitting in a packed hall in the Kremlin as Putin sang their praises.

State television showed a lavish party with an orchestra playing classical music and large buffet with champagne and vodka, said to be Russian spies’ favourite tipples.

Spy scares are back in vogue in Moscow with Kremlin controlled television showing romantic serials about the exploits of Russia’s domestic and foreign security agents.

“Their best workers have always shown patriotism, competency, a high degree of personal and professional decency, and an understanding of the importance of their work for the good of their fatherland,” Putin said.

First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, both tipped as possible Putin successors, attended the Kremlin reception.

Putin, who has tried to restore prestige to the secret services, saluted the “glorious pages” in the history of Russia’s secret services, the successors of the Soviet-era KGB.

“There are many glorious pages, bright examples of true heroism and courage in the history of national state security organisations,” Putin said in the statement, which was posted on the Kremlin’s web page, www.kremlin.ru.

Historians still argue about how many tens of millions of people died at the hands of the Soviet secret service under the rule of Josef Stalin. Millions were executed or sent to perish in labour camps run by Stalin’s secret police.

Stalin’s death in 1953 ended massive purges, but left intact a system of blanket control over the population exercised by the KGB. Political dissidents were imprisoned on criminal charges or locked up in mental hospitals.

On December 20, Russian agents celebrate Chekist day, the date the Soviet secret police, the Cheka, was founded.

“It is a profession who love our motherland,” Putin told agents and senior politicians who attended the Kremlin bash.

Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergei Lebedev, Federal Security Service (FSB) head Nikolai Patrushev and Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov attended the Kremlin banquet.

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