The number of attempted terrorist attacks in Russia keeps growing

The number of terrorist attacks in Russia keeps growing, the country’s Prosecutor-General Igor Krasnov said in a report to the Federation Council, obtained by TASS.

“Very alarming is the continuing growth in the number of terrorist attacks. In 2020, there were 50 of them, 16.3% more than in 2019 (43). At the same time, it is important to emphasize the measures being taken by the law enforcement agencies to prevent them (80% terrorist plots were thwarted during the preparatory stage),” the report says.

Most of the terrorist attacks were plotted by the proponents of radical religious views in Islam, affiliated with international terrorist organizations. Their main targets were crowded sites, such as bodies of power and polling stations, where explosions might have caused heavy casualties.

Also, the Prosecutor-General’s Office noted a high percentage of young people (aged 18-29) who commit terrorist crimes. Their share in the overall number of criminals of this category in 2020 was 53.4%, with nearly half of them (187) exposed in the North Caucasus federal district.

“The current situation indicates that current efforts for resisting the ideology of terrorism, first and foremost, among youth and teenagers, does not fully match the practical needs and must be improved,” the report says.

Earlier, the National Antiterrorist Committee said 44 terrorist attacks were prevented in 2020. The director of the federal security service FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, said 78 attempted acts of terrorism were upset over a period of two years.

Source: TASS