On June 25, 2015 President Vladimir Putin held a briefing session with members of the Russian Permanent Security Council in Moscow.
The Security Council of the Russian Federation (SCRF) (Russian: Совет Безопасности Российской Федерации) is a consultative body of the Russian President that works out the President’s decisions on national security affairs. Composed of key ministers and agency heads and chaired by the President of Russia, the SCRF was established to be a forum for coordinating and integrating national security policy.
The Security Council examines critical issues that affect the national security of the Russian Federation and prepares “presidential decisions” on the “organization of defense, military organizational development, defense production, and military and military-technical cooperation of Russia with foreign states”, as well as the formulation and implementation of foreign policy, and the monitoring of public expenditure on defense, national security and law enforcement.
Taking part in the meeting were Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev Medvedev DmitryPrime Minister of the Russian Federation, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Ivanov Ivanov SergeiChief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office, State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin Naryshkin SergeiState Duma Speaker, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev Kolokoltsev VladimirInterior Minister, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Lavrov SergeiForeign Minister of Russia, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu Shoigu SergeiDefence Minister, Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov Bortnikov AlexanderDirector of the Federal Security Service, Foreign Intelligence Service Director Mikhail Fradkov Fradkov MikhailDirector of the Foreign Intelligence Service, and permanent member of the Security Council Boris Gryzlov Gryzlov Borispermanent member of the Security Council.
What follows is the publically released portion of the meeting minutes, including fascinating insight into the opinions expressed by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov on the evolving scandal of US illegal spying activities in Europe.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues:
Mr Lavrov will tell us about the consultations in Paris. Let’s start with this. Please, Mr Lavrov.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov: On the whole, it was not useless because even despite certain wrangling during the discussion, the main outcome was the acknowledgement of the fact that there is no alternative to complete fulfilment of the Minsk Agreements. First and foremost, the acknowledgement by our German and our French partners of the fact that the overwhelming part of the Minsk provisions should be implemented through direct dialogue between authorities in Kiev and Donetsk and Lugansk.
I can’t say that we have resolved all the problems because this should be done directly by the Contact group and the working subgroups created. I will report on that in more detail later, but on the day of our meeting, a report on the taps [by the United States of the French leadership] was published, and this gave rise to unrest in France so this was another thing that distracted our attention.
Vladimir Putin: How will this scandal end?
Sergei Lavrov: Frankly speaking, I think that Germany’s example [the US special services wiretapping the German leadership] gives the answer: I think that both sides will try to blanket the scandal and forget about it.
Vladimir Putin: That is what would happen.
Source: Kremlin
Note: We asked the Central Intelligence Agency for comment in this situation and they ignored our request.
See related video: Wikileaks report details U.S. spying on French leaders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awqo6vMiAVY
See video: Will France React To US Spy Claims Like Germany Reacted? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZTG-q8FHsQ