Today the FSB announced that it have detained in Moscow a group of citizens from Central Asian countries, which was ordered by the leaders of international terrorist organizations operating in Syria and Turkey, to carry out a series of terrorist attacks during May holidays. The FSB agents confiscated a large amount of guns, bombs and other arms and equipment used in terrorist activities. The detained culprits, whose identities have not been revealed, are being questioned.
Today it is not only the secret services that are fighting terrorism but also the army. Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, says that the Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation, approved by the President in 2014, has an updated list of possible military threats to the Russian state. For the first time, the growing activity of global terrorism was listed as such a threat. The legal aspect of the use of the Russian Armed Forces in fighting terrorism is based on the experience gained in the early 90s during the counter-terrorism operation in the North Caucasus.
“Today no one doubts that at that time Russia did not just face some ideological separatist groups, but well-organized terrorists who were generously paid from abroad. The armed forces which purpose is to defend the country from foreign aggression were forced to fight the militant groups. At the same time, we faced a full-scale information war against Russia unleashed by a number of states. We repelled that first terrorist attack and reached a few conclusions,” Gerasimov states.
According to him, the main conclusion is that the armed forces must be trined in advance for the fight against terrorism.
Second, we must deliver pre-emptive ‘strikes’ against terrorism at the early stages; we must prevent its ideology from getting into the minds of the population, from developing and spreading to new territories.
Third, terrorism cannot be eliminated without the use of military force. But the military force alone is not enough to win. It is necessary bring together political, financial, ideological and media resources of the state for a successful fight against terrorist organizations.
“The experience gained by the Russian Armed Forces in the fight against terrorism promoted the development of the fundamental legal and regulatory framework governing the use of the armed forces in the fight against terrorism in the Russian Federation and to suppress international terrorist activities outside of the national borders,” the Chief of the General Staff said.
Speaking about what causes international terrorism, he pointed out several reasons: “The plight of the people in a number of countries creates conditions for the rise of terrorism. The plight of the people is aggravated by radical ideology, and as a result we get al-Qaeda, ISIS and other terrorist organizations. Another reason for the growth terrorist threats is external interference in the affairs of sovereign states. Attempts to apply the values of the Western democracy in countries with their own mentalities, moral values and traditions lead to the opposite result. The artificial planting of alien ideals has blown up North Africa and the Middle East.
The third reason behind the rise of terrorism is the desire of some states to use the services of terrorist and extremist organizations to achieve their political goals and to destroy undemocratic but stable governments. Later, emerging from the shadow of their patrons, the terrorist groups begin to grow, to engulf vast areas and generate an economic base, to form a quasi-structure, which leads to the destabilization of entire regions and poses a threat to security throughout the civilized world.”
