As many as six terrorist attacks were prevented in Russia this year, chairman of the National Anti-Terror Committee and Chief of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov told a session of the National Anti-Terror Committee.
According to him, a total of 50 militants were killed, 63 bandits and 142 accomplices were detained.
Bortnikov noted that over the past year, the law enforcement agencies and the bodies of power implemented a set of security and preventive measures that made it possible to more than halve the number of terrorist-related crimes on the territory of the North Caucasian Federal District.
"The internal base of providing terrorists with human and financial resources is dwindling and the channels of its external support are also being consistently cut off by law-enforcement agencies, and any attempts by terrorists to re-create combat-worthy terrorist formations are failing to succeed," TASS cited him as saying.
The security chief said that efforts to effectively counter these threats require additional measures to improve preventive work in the region.
"It [this work] should be based on an objective assessment of threat factors revealed during the monitoring of processes exerting influence on the situation," Bortnikov stressed.
The chairmen of anti-terror commissions should seek the timely provision of information on emerging terror threats, "the higher personal responsibility of officials in charge of such monitoring and their professional training organized at the proper level," the FSB head added.
"It is necessary to ensure that the chairmen of anti-terror commissions exercise personal control over the use of monitoring results on a constant basis both in the planning of the work of regional and municipal anti-terror commissions and in the process of developing and implementing plans and programs in the sphere of the prevention of terrorism and their timely adjustment," he said.
"Anti-terror commissions and their offices should render methodological and practical assistance to the commissions of municipal entities in organizing monitoring measures, taking into account the specifics of the local situation," Bortnikov concluded.
Head of the Analytical Section of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis, Alexander Khramchikhin, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that there will always be a terrorist threat in Russia because of the actions of extremists. According to him, it does not matter whether it comes from outside or grows inside the country, since terrorism has acquired an international character. The measures to combat terrorism have not changed: these are forceful suppression, ideological and informational suppression, both within the policy within the state and internationally.
President of the International Association of Veterans of the Alpha Anti-Terrorism Unit, member of the Civic Chamber Sergey Goncharov also noted that terrorism remains the number one problem worldwide, as evidenced by recent events in Russia and the whole world. "We see that the situation, especially in the North Caucasus, is quite tense. So we can't relax," the expert said.
"It seems to me now that the threat of terrorist activity will only grow, because the militants leaving Syria will not cease their activities, but simply go to other countries, regions, they can even change forms of terrorist activity. So, unfortunately, there is still a threat of terrorism for Russia. Recently, Russian special services have faced many difficult tasks. the Olympics, the presidential election, the World Cup. I believe that they fulfilled their promises, and we are very grateful for this," Goncharov stressed.
