MOSCOW. July 15 (Interfax-AVN) - Control over the use of budget funds needs to be tightened, which would help cut off the financing of terrorism in the North Caucasus, a region that has witnessed a surge in terrorist activities in 2009, Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said.
"The number of registered terrorism-related crimes increased in the first half of 2009: 35 in January, 99 in February, 162 in March, 227 in April, and 307 in May," Nurgaliyev said in an article published in the Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper on Wednesday.
"Terrorist underground cells have spread their activities to a number of North Caucasus regions in the South Federal District, such as Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan," the interior minister said.
Besides the known factors that could lead to an intensification of terrorist activities, including seasonal factors, major financial contributions from abroad and an escalation of political tensions in Transcaucasia, "it is also necessary to bear in mind the effect of the economic crisis, which has seriously complicated an already difficult socioeconomic situation in the region," he said.
"That is why it is also important to thoroughly control the use of state money," he added.
The Russian president has instructed the National Anti-Terrorist Committee to arrange a set of organizational and operative measures aimed at countering terrorist activities such as banditry and drug trafficking which serve as a financial source for terrorism, Nurgaliyev said.
"These measures must be as tough as possible," the minister said.