MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax-AVN) - Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Nikolai Patrushev said on Wednesday that 238 foreigners suspected of involvement in terrorist or extremist activities were banned from entry to Russia in 2004.
"The anti-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus has on the whole made it possible to achieve necessary standards of law and order and public security in the Chechen Republic, accelerate the process of reconstruction of its social sphere and economy and of forming bodies of government in the republic," Patrushev said at a meeting with heads of leading Russian media outlets.
He said more than 200 militants, including such well-known figures as Abu al-Walid and Ruslan Gelayev, had been "neutralized" in the course of security operations by the army and FSB.
More than 900 people had been arrested on suspicion of terrorism, more than 1,500 pieces of firearms of various kinds and a large amount of ammunition had been seized, and about 800 guerrilla infrastructure facilities had been destroyed, Patrushev said.
He said it had also been possible to find out a network in the North Caucasus run by the al-Qaeda international militant group. "We face intensive work to neutralize al-Qaeda cells that remain on Russian territory," he said.
He also said security services had listed the more dangerous militants. Among them, he mentioned Chechen guerrilla warlord Shamil Basayev and former Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. He also mentioned Movladi Udugov among key militants who have taken refuge abroad.