President Vladimir Putin of Russia has called for boosting security at home and abroad in the wake of the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey. The Russian president issued directives during a meeting with security chiefs in Moscow on Tuesday, a day after Andrey Karlov was shot dead while delivering a speech on the opening of a photo exhibition dubbed, Russia in the eyes of Turks, in the Turkish capital, Ankara.

“I ask the special services to take additional measures to ensure security inside Russia and outside, to raise the security of Russian institutions and employees abroad,” Putin said, adding, “And I ask you through channels of partnership to strengthen your work with the intelligence agencies of other states.”

In response to the assassination, President Putin has already ordered extra security measures for Russian embassies around the world. Elsewhere in his remarks, the Russian president said he was shocked by the “brutality and cynicism” of an attack at a Christmas market in the German capital, Berlin, in which a lorry ploughed through a crowd, killing at least a dozen people.

The assassin of the Russian ambassador has been identified as 22-year-old Mevlut Mert Altintas, who had served with the Turkish anti-riot police for around three years. Altintas was “neutralized” by Turkish police after killing the envoy.

Moscow has sent investigators to Ankara to look into the fatal shooting. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said that the assassination was an act of provocation by those seeking to ruin relations between the two countries. Earlier this summer, Ankara and Moscow agreed on normalizing their relations after the ties soured following the November 2015 shooting down of a Russian jet by Turkey over Syria.

Presstv