The Public Chamber of Russia has established the anti-terrorism coordinating council. The head of the council, Sergey Ordzhonikidze, stated that “the acuteness of the problem of Russian society’s mobilization in favor of consolidation of society and the state in the struggle against terrorism is obvious. On this issue we have to act as a united front and provide real help to our state in the settlement of urgent security problems. The achievement of certain results and providing real help are possible only as part of cooperation between society and the authorities, and they have to be partners. Such an approach would illustratively demonstrate that the Public Chamber believes that it is important to mobilize civic society to fight the international threat.”
The working group on combating recruiters for terrorist organizations as part of cooperation with the civic society of the CIS countries, the post-Soviet countries, and compatriots living abroad was headed by Elena Sutormina. She spoke about the results of the work of the hotline of the Public Chamber, which was initiated by Sutormina in August 2015. More than 50 calls were received; 46 of them concerned instances of people’s disappearance, attempts ar recruiting, and propaganda of extremism on the Internet.
Vladimir Mukomel, the director of the Center for Ethno-Political and Regional Studies, speaking about reasons for young people joining Deesh, expresses the view that the youth is the most sensitive part of the population, and it very rapidly reacts to every manifestation of social injustice: “In Russian society there is such a request. Unfortunately, it remains a problem that encourages many young people to take part in radical actions. The authorities always have an urge to find a simple, clear solution. But simple solutions are not always effective. And it is a trap: it is difficult to destroy, to crush, to fight ideas. Here we need other, more subtle methods.”
According to Mukomel, we need to transfer the work to the regions, to the local, to go into the field. “Obviously, you need to rely not only on skilled work, which doesn't always include visible activity, but also to educate other law enforcement agencies. Particularly Muslims, Muslim youth is often faced with inappropriate actions by ordinary police officers. We know cases when police officers have burst into mosques wearing boots, etc. We need to educate police officers,” the expert believes.
