The director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has revealed that the country is facing an increasing threat of terrorism, linking the danger to the activities of the West.
Aleksandr Bortnikov, who also heads Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAK), made the remarks on Tuesday during an extended meeting, convened to assess the work of the country's security services this year.
The increased threat of terrorism largely stems from the Ukraine conflict and the “unprecedented material support for the Kiev regime, organized by the collective West,” Bortnikov said, as quoted by the NAK press service.
“The enemy, with the support of Western intelligence services, has been purveying aggressive anti-Russian propaganda, stepping up the recruitment of saboteurs and terrorists, while not shying away from deception, threats and blackmail,” Bortnikov said.
Apart from that, international terrorist organizations have been “forming terrorist cells among migrant workers, trying to involve young people, including schoolchildren and students, in criminal activities,” the FSB chief said, without naming any specific groups.
Over the past year, Russia’s security services have foiled some 190 terrorist plots, with more than 1,700 suspects detained. At least 38 would-be terrorists were killed in skirmishes with law enforcement, Bortnikov said. The authorities have seized more than 100,000 illegal firearms, and over 5,500 explosive devices, he added.
The FSB had announced its latest efforts to foil a terrorist plot earlier in the day, stating that it had detained a 21-year-old suspect – a citizen of Russia and Germany – who had been planning to blow up a railway near the city of Nizhny Novgorod on the instructions of Ukrainian intelligence services.