The situation with countering terrorism in Russia, in particular in North Caucasus, has remained difficult, director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and head of the National Antiterrorist Committee Alexander Bortnikov said.

"The level of terrorist crimes in the country, especially in the North Caucasian, has remained high," Bortnikov told a meeting with the heads of antiterrorist commissions in regions of the Central Federal District in Krasnogorsk.

"Armed attacks of criminals on authorities in Ingushetia, Dagestan and Chechnya and the escalation of the situation in regions adjacent to the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone are sources of threats to Russia's national interests and its security," Bortnikov said.