PYATIGORSK, Russia. March 20 (Interfax) - The secretary of Russia's Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, said on Wednesday that the rate of "crimes of terrorist nature" in the North Caucasus dropped by "nearly 30%" last year and largely put that to the credit of the local population.
"It is no accident that we are considering countering the threat of terrorism in the North Caucasus Federal District. In 2013, of the 218 crimes of terrorist nature that were committed in Russia, 214 were committed in the North Caucasus. Today's center of terrorist activity is Dagestan, which accounted for about 80% of such crimes that were recorded last year. That is a very alarming fact," a statement from the Chechen government quoted Nikolai Patrushev as saying at a conference in Grozny.
The conference pondered measures to block terrorism financing channels and other ways of preventing terrorism.
Patrushev claimed that terrorism prevention work had become more effective, and that civil society had come to trust the law enforcement system more.
He said that last year about 30 cases were detected of financing of militants in Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachayevo-Cherkesia.
"However, the number of crimes that were uncovered is out of proportion to the scale of the problem. Stable channels of financial support for the bandit underground are not yet detected and cut short on a sufficient scale. This form of crime is based on an extensive network of emissaries and mediators," Patrushev said.
He said one task was to hammer out a strategy that would raise serious obstacles to and disorganize terrorism.