MOSCOW, October 9 (RAPSI) - The Federal Security Service (FSB) chief Alexander Bortnikov said during the National Anti-Terrorist Committee’s meeting on Tuesday that the number of crimes of a terrorist nature dropped more than twofold in Russia’s North Caucasus over the past year.

According to Bortnikov, starting 2018, 6 terrorist attacks were prevented in the North Caucasian Federal District, 50 terrorists were killed, and 63 militants were arrested.

However, a terrorist threat continues to exist in the region. Primarily, this owes to the international terrorist organizations’ intent to extend their activity to the North Caucasus, Bortnikov said.

Emissaries of international terrorist organizations place their focus on terrorist propaganda among young people, he stressed. In August, several attacks were committed against police officers in the Republic of Chechnya. Four out of five assailants have not reached the age of 18, the FSB chief added. 

Moreover, terrorists try to provoke interconfessional tensions in the region choosing religious objects as targets for their terrorist attacks, according to Bortnikov.