Vladimir Putin on Thursday described Russia as a country besieged by hostile forces and vowed to hit back hard both against attempts at military containment and of destabilisation of his regime from within.

Taking a sharp tone both on domestic and foreign policy, the Russian president appeared to reassert his authority in his first major speech since the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov on February 27 and Mr Putin’s subsequent disappearance from public view for 11 days this month. The events had fuelled speculation in Moscow over internal struggles in Mr Putin’s administration and the stability of his grip on power.

The situation around Russia “will not change for the better if we succumb and yield at every step. It will only change for the better if we become stronger,” the Russian president told leaders of the Federal Security Bureau, the KGB successor where Mr Putin started his own career and with whose help he runs the country.