Propagandists and terrorists

The intelligence services decided to deal with dangerous ideology

A regular meeting of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) was held in Moscow yesterday, at which several important organizational issues were adopted. Opening the meeting, FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev, who heads the NAC, noted that thanks to the efforts of the intelligence services and other departments, the number of terrorist attacks in Russia has almost halved. However, after such positive news, he made it clear that there was no way to relax: “The National Anti-Terrorism Committee is receiving information, including from foreign partners, about terrorists’ desire to gain access to weapons of mass destruction and their production technologies.” In addition, the head of the FSB noted that the basis of terrorism “is nationalism, separatism, religious and political extremism, which usually arise where there are serious interethnic, territorial and socio-economic problems.”

As a result, the independent efforts of different departments in these areas were considered insufficient and required coordination. In order to prevent the leakage of weapons of mass destruction to terrorists, the NAC decided to create a single supra-departmental structure to control the movement of all radioactive, radiation hazardous and fissile materials. “Now each department has its own control system. We have many departments involved in the transportation of fissile materials, including such harmless ones as medical radioactive drugs and sources. But even them can be used for terrorist purposes,” the head of Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, explained NAC’s decision. At the same time, he noted that “the problem can be solved within a year - a pilot project will start working in one of the regions, and then the system should work throughout the country.”

As for the spread of the ideology of terrorism, a special working group will combat this. As Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Valentin Sobolev explained, it will organize monitoring of the situation in dangerous regions of Russia, including the North Caucasus, interact with the media and the Public Chamber to conduct counter-propaganda, and will conduct “other work with religious and public organizations.”

Alexey GRISHIN