The 7th regional expert consultation of representatives of law enforcement authorities, special services agencies of CIS countries and an expanded plenary session of the Scientific and Advisory Council under the CIS Anti-Terrorism Center (ATC) opened in Baku today.
The event is organized with the support of the State Civil Aviation Administration of Azerbaijan, Interstate Council on Aviation and Airspace Use and the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), the press service of the Administration said.
For the first time, representatives of monitoring group of the UN Security Council on issues related to ISIS, Al-Qaida and Taliban terrorist organizations were invited to the meeting.
The CIS Anti-Terrorism Center stressed that the terrorist threat for the CIS countries still remains high. "The most acute of terror threats is the involvement of citizens from CIS countries in cooperation by international terrorist organizations. The Internet space is being actively used today for the purpose of calling for the participation in terrorist organizations and involving citizens of CIS countries in protests and execution of various instructions of terrorists,” the statement said, adding that over 90% of the blocked internet resources in CIS countries are operating outside the region.
Experts believe the use of the technology of “remote impact” is today one of the main factors contributing to the growth of terrorism.
The head of the Commonwealth of Independent States Anti-Terrorism Center, Col. Gen. of Police Andrey Novikov said that terrorists are changing their tactics.
“A new model of extremism is exported from combat zones to Central Asian nations, it was modernized technologically and tactically, adapted to the specifics of the multinational composition of participants,” Sputnik cited Novikov as saying.
According to him, CIS ATC has a data base containing the information about 8,000 CIS residents wanted for terrorist activity as well as 2,000 photos of them.
The CIS ATC head explained that this roster was formed on the basis of an agreed-to list of articles of the national criminal codes providing responsibility for crimes of a terrorist nature, as well as a separate list of articles on the participation in hostilities as part of illegal armed groups and international terrorist organizations on the territory of third countries.
According to Novikov, as a result of the operation dubbed Barrier, the CIS ATC in cooperation with CIS intelligence services has identified 73 persons involved in the financing of terrorism in 2017. The center has also identified 17 people wanted for terrorism in 2017, who have already been jailed for other criminal offenses.
He added that in 2016-2017, the center has managed to identify possible locations of over 500 people wanted by CIS law enforcement agencies for terrorism-related offenses.
