"In experts' estimates, about 500 terrorist and extremist groups are active in the world today," said Nikolai Ovchinnikov, head of ministry's Anti-organized crime and Anti-terrorism Department, at an international scientific workshop on the prevention of terrorism.
It is especially alarming that terrorists have been targeting crowed places in recent years, he said.
"State authorities have started to review the entire system of security provision and are now paying specific attention to pre-flight inspections," Ovchinnikov said.
Terrorism involving the use of technology to commit terrorist attacks has also become a problem, he said.
Russia's problem with terrorism lies in the country's south in the Chechen Republic and in the neighboring republics of Ingushetia and Daghestan, Ovchinnikov said.
