MOSCOW, April 15 (RIA Novosti) - The Taliban and other terrorist movements active in Afghanistan pose a major threat to Russia's security, a high-ranking FSB officer said on Wednesday.

Col. Gen. Alexei Sedov said that groups including al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad "present a major danger for Central Asian states, and for Russia as well."

Early in the year Russian Deputy Interior Minister Arkady Yedelev said that al-Qaeda is active in south Russia's republics of Daghestan and Chechnya, and regularly supplies local militant groups with weapons and explosives.

Sporadic terrorist attacks and militant clashes remain commonplace in the two Caucasus republics, as well as in nearby Ingushetia, although the Kremlin ended its campaign to fight separatists and terrorists in the region several years ago.