Russian FSB warns of possible IS terrorist attacks

The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group may carry out terrorist attacks on the territory of Russia, Director of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov said Tuesday.

"Currently, a large amount of operational information is arriving, indicating that leaders of terrorist groups operating in the Middle East as part of the so-called IS plot terrorist attacks in various regions of the world, including in Russia," RIA Novosti news agency quoted Bortnikov as saying at a meeting of the National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAC).

To prevent militants' attempts to penetrate into Russia, the country's security services need to take additional measures to strengthen the border regime and impose tougher controls on passenger flows, he said.

According to Bortnikov, who is also the NAC chairman, law enforcement agencies prevented 16 terrorist attacks in nine Russian cities in 2016 and eliminated 46 international terrorist group cells formed by citizens of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) of the former Soviet Union.

He said the investigation into a recent terrorist attack in Russia's second largest city of St. Petersburg, which killed 14 people and injured dozens of others, showed the need to improve work aimed at preventing such incidents.

Eight suspected of participating in terrorist cells, all of which were natives of Central Asian republics, were detained in the course of the investigation of the St. Petersburg attack and a large number of arms and explosives were seized, Bortnikov said. Endi