There is a need for an “insurmountable barrier” to smuggling and undocumented migration to be put on Russian borders, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

The Russian president said that over 3,300 undocumented migrants were detained in Russia last year, and over 2,800 criminal cases were initiated over illegal border crossings.

“The border service of Russia’s FSB [Federal Security Service] is doing quite a bit of work [in this area] <…> It is necessary to increase the analytic capacity and technical equipment of the border system and put an insurmountable barrier in the way of smuggling, undocumented migration and transnational crime,” Putin said at a meeting with military officers.

The Russian president underscored that the country’s safety and security directly depends upon the competent work of the intelligence service, in particular, timely reports on potential external threats and forecasts on the development of the international situation in unstable regions.