MAGAS, March 7. /TASS/. The number of extremist crimes in the North Caucasus declined by a third over the year and almost 450 individuals were convicted for their wrongdoings, Russia’s Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said on Thursday.

"The number of extremist crimes declined by a third as a result of well-coordinated work carried out by law-enforcement agencies and executive authorities in the District," the top Russian security official told a meeting on national security in the North Caucasus Federal District held in the capital of Ingushetia.

"Over 50 individuals were additionally identified as those on whom information is available about their complicity in extremist activity and 449 individuals were convicted for extremist crimes," Patrushev added.

A similar meeting held in Nalchik in April 2023 worked out measures to prevent extremist manifestations in the North Caucasus, he said.

"In the course of their implementation, considerable work was carried out to expose and suppress the activity of radical associations and groupings on the District’s territory," Patrushev said.

The issues of ensuring national security, public and political stability in the North Caucasus have been and remain top priority tasks in the Security Council’s work, he said.