Since the beginning of the year, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has prevented almost 50 acts of a terrorist nature and detained about 800 members of armed bands, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said today, speaking at a meeting with high-ranking officers and prosecutors.
"Terrorism remains one of the main threats in Russia and around the world. This year, FSB officers prevented 43 acts of a terrorist nature, detained about 800 members of armed bands, killing dozens of them, eliminated 66 terrorist and extremist cells," RIA Novosti cited the president as saying.
"During the first half of 2017, the works of 30 foreign intelligence agents and more than 200 persons suspected of cooperating with foreign special services was suppressed," Putin said, adding that effective protection of national interests requires a system, deep work by the Foreign Intelligence Service.
President of the International Association of Veterans of the Alpha Anti-Terrorism Unit, Sergey Goncharov, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the numbers voiced by Vladimir Putin are positive. "I should thank our special services for their great work. But at the same time I would not take the liberty of saying that our achievements in the field of security allow us to expect that there will be no such manifestations of terrorism on our territory. There is a danger of a terrorist threat in Russia, there are still gangsters trying to strengthen themselves . I think that they are not only being pushed, but also sponsored. So I would not calm down," he said.
Sergei Goncharov also drew attention to the problem of espionage in Russia. "There have been more spies from the former Soviet republics lately. The same Ukraine - recently the media reported about 5-6 Ukrainian spies. Ukraine has no contacts with us and declares us as its number one enemy. This espionage promotion leads to the fact, that we will have to bring more and more people with Ukrainian citizenship to justice," the President of the International Association of Veterans of the Alpha Anti-Terrorism Unit expects.
