ST. PETERSBURG. Oct 22 (Interfax-AVN) - The number of terrorist attacks in the North Caucasus has grown in 2009, said Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee within the Russian prosecution system.
"The number of terrorism-related crimes in the North Caucasus has not declined. As many as 513 such crimes have been registered this year," Bastrykin said at an Investigative Committee session in St. Petersburg on Thursday.
"The number of terrorist attacks has grown 57%," he said.
The best investigators from the Investigative Committee are working in Ingushetia, Dagestan, and North Ossetia, he said.
The number of recorded crimes in Russia in general decreased by 6% to 2.3 million in January-September 2009, and 1.3 million crimes have been solved, Bastrykin said.
The crime rate decreased in 65 regions and grew in 18 regions, particularly in North Ossetia, the Nenets autonomous district, the Kamchatka territory and the Kemerovo region, he said.