The special services and law enforcement agencies have prevented 200 terrorist attacks in Russia in 10 years, Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the FSB and chairman of the National Anti-Terrorist Committee, said.
"In the last 10 years, about 200 terrorist attacks have been prevented. Obviously, we are talking about thousands of lives saved," he said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta published on the website on Wednesday. According to him, while in 2010 only 10% of such attacks were prevented, in 2018 - already about 80%, and in 2020 - 96%.
The FSB director said that during the same period, the number of violent terrorist crimes committed in the country, such as explosions, hostage-taking, murder, decreased 260 times - from 779 in 2010 to 3 in 2020.
Bortnikov said that a lot of work has been done within the framework of interagency comprehensive plans adopted by the NAC to counter illegal trafficking of weapons of mass destruction, as well as the financing of terrorism, which has significantly reduced the resource base of terrorism. "In 2020 alone, about 600 firearms, 134 improvised explosive devices, more than 100,000 cartridges, and more than 3,000 mines, grenades and other ammunition were seized from illegal circulation. Rosfinmonitoring blocked the financial assets of more than 1.2 thousand persons suspected of involvement in terrorism, totaling more than 57 million rubles. All in all, 184 channels for financing these criminal activities were stopped," said Bortnikov.
He noted that "in one country alone, for example in Russia, to reduce the number of terrorist attacks to isolated instances and prevent the commission of large-scale terrorist acts with large numbers of victims by suppressing the vast majority of such crimes at the preparation stage is a perfectly realistic task which we are successfully accomplishing".
The situation in the North Caucasus
All the heads of the gang groups operating in the North Caucasus have been liquidated, Bortnikov said.
"The NAC's coordinated activities of the security and law enforcement forces have stabilized the situation in the North Caucasus. By today, the main hotbeds of terrorist activity and all the gang leaders have been eliminated," he said.
The head of the Federal Security Service recalled that the complex of special and combat measures implemented under the direction of the Federal Operational Headquarters ended last January with the elimination of the remnants of the Byutukayev gang. "The coordinated actions of federal and republican security agencies neutralized the terrorists involved in the explosion at Domodedovo airport, the attack on the press house in Grozny and a number of other terrorist acts and other crimes against Russian citizens," he said.
International terrorist organizations
According to Bortnikov, Russian special services have data about 4.5 thousand Russians who joined international terrorist organizations (ITO) abroad (in Syria and Iraq).
"All fighters without exception, including those returning to Russia from "hot spots," recruiters, as well as those who create channels of transfer of bandits and financing of terrorist activities, are searched for and ensured inevitability of punishment. Bortnikov said, "About 4,500 Russians who have gone abroad to take part in combat operations on the side of the Interior Ministry have already been identified.
According to him, the current system of counter-terrorism allows early detection and suppression of terrorist aspirations. "In Russia, they are practically equated with war criminals," he recalled.
In addition, measures taken in recent years have prevented more than 200 more people from leaving for areas of high terrorist activity.
"Operational measures are carried out in migration flows. More than 1,000 people have been convicted for organizing channels of illegal migration for eight years," said the head of the NAC.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS