Patrushev: Russia consolidates efforts of international community in fight against terrorism

The Russian side insists that no preconditions are acceptable when creating a united front to combat terrorism, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev told foreign journalists in an interview.

He noted that France, the UK, Germany, Italy and NATO in general are interested in the joint fight against terrorism. "There are objective reasons here, which are also linked to Russia’s successful operation in Syria. It is important that our actions comply with international law and are carried out at the request of the legitimate Syrian authorities. After this operation started, the US and its allies also stepped up their actions against the terrorists," TASS cited him as saying.

Patrushev stressed that Russia has managed to achieve some progress in consolidating the efforts of the international community in this direction. "One of the results was the recently adopted resolutions by the UN Security Council aimed at fighting Daesh and other terrorist organizations," the Security Council secretary noted.

"We are firmly convinced that the fight against terrorism should be consistent. We are showing that through our own example. Attempts to divide terrorists into 'good' and 'bad' ones are absolutely unacceptable," Nikolai Patrushev said.

A military observer of the TASS news agency, retired Colonel Viktor Litovkin, in an interview with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza said that currently there is no united front to fight terrorism due to differences between the United States and Russia, but the inclusion of Russia in the fight against Daesh in Syria has radically changed the situation. "Thanks to this success, a meeting of the contact group in Geneva, which brought together the Syrian radical opposition and other sides of the Syrian conflict, was possible. It wouldn't have happened without Russia's success," he stressed.

The expert explained that, judging by the statements, everyone understands the need to unite efforts in the fight against global terrorism, but in fact each of the sides rather pursues their own goals. "For example, Turkey declares that it is fighting Daesh, but actually it is fighting Bashar al-Assad and the Kurds. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait also claim they are fighting Daesh, but in reality they support, sponsor and promote its interests. The US also speaks about the fight against Daesh, but it also uses it in the fight against Bashar al-Assad," the military observer of the TASS news agency complained.

"I think that the most important thing is that we are fighting terrorists, but don't do anything to avoid the influx of terrorist groups. But the problem is that terrorism arises where poverty, oppression, illiteracy, disease and the gap between rich and poor prevail. So radical preachers use this social inequality to pursue their own selfish interests," Victor Litovkin concluded.

The chairman of the Advisory Board of the Federal Customs Service of Russia, Valery Shnyakin, noted a tendency by the international community to unite in the face of the common threat, which, however, has not yet developed into something bigger. "There is no military alliance between Russia and NATO in the international arena, which would be based on the agreements on the fight against terrorism on all continents. There is such a trend and understanding of the unity of objectives and goals in Syria between NATO countries and Russia, there are certain verbal agreements on the definition of the objectives and missions of combat aircraft, but there is still no long-term agreement. We are still moving towards this," Valeriy Shnyakin said.