MOSCOW, November 21 (RIA Novosti) - More than 880 planned terrorist acts have been prevented in Russia so far this year, and two-thirds of terrorist crimes have been solved, the country's interior minister said Tuesday.
Addressing a gathering of senior law-enforcement officials in the Kremlin, Rashid Nurgaliyev said this year had seen a 25% drop in the number of terrorist attacks - not least thanks to improved prevention - and that the perpetrators of 77 of 115 successful attacks had been tracked down and brought to justice.
He said 11 international terrorist cells had been dismantled in Russia since the beginning of this year, and 20 of their envoys extradited from the country.
Russia's Prosecutor General Yury Chaika, who also attended this gathering, voiced his concern over the low crime detection level in the country, and criticized poor police work.
"The effectiveness of crime detection remains low. Only 50% of crimes are detected in Russia," Chaika said.
He said some 1.5 million crimes remained undetected in January-September 2006, and that only 20% of contract killing cases were solved.
Chaika warned against the "dangerous psychological state of mass acceptance by police officers of the low results of their work," and urged for special operative groups to be formed in each Russian region to detect grave crimes.
He also said more than 12,500 corrupt officials involved in and 9,500 bribery cases had been uncovered in Russia in 2006, and hailed law enforcement agencies' work in combating corruption.
The top prosecutor said more than 2,000 people were convicted for bribery in the first half of 2006.
