MOSCOW, January 23 (RIA Novosti) - Vladimir Putin gave instructions Monday for Russia's domestic security agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), to tighten security at energy facilities in the Caucasus in the wake of explosions Sunday that wrecked part of a pipeline in North Ossetia leading to Georgia.
"I had a conversation with the FSB director and instructed [him] to tighten security at energy facilities in the Caucasus," Putin told a Cabinet meeting.
"Last year a gas pipeline in Daghestan was blown up," he said, adding that the incident on Sunday appeared to be another planned detonation.
Two blasts on trunk pipelines running across southern Russia cut off gas supplies to Georgia and Armenia. The explosions occurred in North Ossetia, a Russian republic in the North Caucasus. Repair work is under way to restore gas supplies.
