The most crucial task

Speaking at the Kremlin on 20 December during a ceremony commemorating Security Services Day, which is celebrated on the day of the founding of the VChK-KGB by Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, President Vladimir Putin said to an audience of Russian intelligence officers and KGB veterans that their most crucial task today is to protect the country's economy against foreign industrial espionage. He said another vital role of Russian services is combating terrorism, and that they must sustain "the trust of their compatriots by protecting their civil rights freedoms." Putin also extended his gratitude to the veterans of the KGB "who devoted their life to the cause." Security Services Day has a direct connection not only to Lenin and the first head of the VChK-KGB, Feliks Dzerzhinskii, but also to Count Aleksandr Bekendorf. Following the suppression of the Decembrist Rebellion in December 1825, the count suggested to Emperor Nikolai I that he create a special secret service, and became the first chief of the Third Department.