At least twenty terror attacks foiled in Russia in 2018

As many as twenty terrorist attacks were prevented in Russia at the preparation stage last year, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) Igor Kulyagin told reporters at a news conference in the Russian Foreign Ministry.

“A total of 36 terrorist crimes, including 20 terror attacks, were foiled at the preparation stage in 2018 thanks to preventive actions by the law enforcement agencies,” he said.

“During counterterrorism operations and individual combat activities, 69 militants, including 10 terrorist chieftains, have been neutralized, while 37 chieftains, 257 militants and 622 accomplices have been detained,” Kulyagin said.

He stressed that terrorism-related crimes continued to decrease in Russia thanks to consistent efforts. “Last year, the number of registered crimes reduced three times compared to 2017. The number of terrorist crimes has decreased 24 times over the past five years – from 218 in 2012 to 9 in 2018,” he noted.

According to the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, more than 300 people were talked into rejecting terrorist activity in five years in Russia.

“In 2018, 18 people were convinced into rejecting terrorist activity. There were about 300 of them over the last five years,” Kulyagin said.

He reported that there is still the threat of propagating ideas of terrorism and extremism. In 2018, Kulyagin said, the Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and prosecutors managed to suppress the spreading of information related to terrorism and extremism on more than 64,000 Internet resources.

Source: TASS