Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Putin says Russia still faces terrorism threat

RIA Novosti

12:44 03/12/2009 MOSCOW, December 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia still faced a threat from internal terrorism.

"We have done a lot to break the backbone of terrorism, but the threat has not yet been eliminated," the prime minister said during his annual question and answer session.

On the recent attack on a Moscow-St. Petersburg high-speed train, which claimed 26 lives, Putin said that it was necessary "to act in a tough way" against the terrorists responsible.

The blast has raised fears of a resurge of terrorist attacks in the Russian capital and other major cities. Russia was hit hard by terrorism in the 1990s and the early years of this decade, but violence has largely been confined to the volatile North Caucasus region since 2004.