Intelligence agents have foiled 20 terrorist plots in Russia this year, President Vladimir Putin said today, and asked officials to increase their efforts to prevent terrorist attacks.
Russia began carrying out air strikes on Islamic State militants in Syria last month to support government forces there. The Kremlin has cited curbing terrorism internationally and making sure Russian nationals in the IS ranks don't come back home as the main reasons behind the Russian air strikes.
Speaking today at a ceremony at the Kremlin, Putin said in televised comments that the FSB intelligence agency this year had foiled 20 terrorist plots, arrested 560 militants and killed 112 others.
Putin asked the FSB to increase its efforts in preventing terrorist attacks as well as their uncovering the terrorists' links to international groups.
Islamic insurgency has been brewing in Russia's North Caucasus following two wars in Chechnya in the 1990s.
In neighboring Dagestan, the insurgents, who want to carve out a state governed by their strict interpretation of Islamic law, clash with law enforcement officers almost daily. Moscow says some of these militants have links to Islamic State.
The FSB, the main successor to the KGB, says that it has foiled two major terrorist plots in two weeks in Moscow and in southern Russia which were allegedly prepared by men with links to IS.
