Tackling terror is Kremlin’s top priority: US government report

The number of terror attacks in Europe has decreased significantly - partly due to fewer plots in Russia's republic of Chechnya. That's according to a security report by the US State Department.

While violence and terrorism continued in the North Caucasus in 2008, the report said, there was a decline in incidents in Chechnya. The neighbouring republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia and North Ossetia have replaced Chechnya as Russia’s terrorism hotspots.

The report claimed that Russia had managed to avoid numerous casualties in such terror attacks.

It also said that fighting terrorism remained the top priority of the Russian government’s in 2008. And that Moscow considered cooperation with the U.S. in this sphere “a pillar of bilateral relations.”