MOSCOW, April 10. /TASS/. Terrorist organizations are not abandoning their attempts to relocate terrorists from Syria and Iraq to Russia, Secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said at a videoconference with Urals regions on Friday.

As Patrushev said, "the terrorist threat, unfortunately, continues to exist" and is caused by the activity of international terrorist organizations and the functioning of clandestine ‘sleeper cells’ on the territory of Russia that are collecting funds for their operation.

"There are incessant attempts to relocate to our country those who have gained combat experience as part of terrorist gangs in Syria and Iraq," Patrushev stressed.

Terrorists are actively using the Internet for their recruitment activity, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council pointed out.

"Last year alone, the dissemination of terrorist-related propaganda materials posted on 135,000 web-pages was foiled. This is almost twice as much as in 2018," Patrushev stated.

The secretary of Russia’s Security Council cited the data of the Prosecutor General’s Office, which showed that the number of crimes related to terrorist recruitment, financing and propaganda had grown across the country last year, while the Urals Federal District "registered the largest increase in these crimes."

"The thorough work of the security and law enforcement agencies on the district’s territory in 2019 made it possible to prevent five terrorist attacks, bust six terrorist cells, detain over 50 terrorism-related individuals and expose five Salafi Islamist groups," Patrushev went on.

Last week, the security services thwarted a terrorist act in the Surgut district of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region, which was being plotted by local residents affiliated with the Imarat Kavkaz international terrorist organization (outlawed in Russia), the security chief recalled.

"As we see, the situation is uneasy," Patrushev said, suggesting the participants in the conference should discuss additional measures to intensify work for exposing and busting clandestine cells of international terrorist organizations.

"These measures are stipulated in our draft decision. I request you to give your assessment," the security chief said, addressing the videoconference participants.