Russian President Vladimir Putin has pointed to the need for close coordination of special services’ activities for effective fight against international terrorism and extremism.
"Close coordination of special services’ work is necessary to combat international terrorism and extremism effectively and tackle other issues related to ensuring peace and security,"Putin noted in a message of greetings to the participants in the XIV session of the Meeting of the heads of security agencies and intelligence services of the CIS member-countries on intelligence activity issues posted on the Kremlin’s website.
"Well-coordinated interaction and timely exchange of intelligence and analytical information will make it possible (for us) to successfully counter modern challenges in the Commonwealth space," TASS cited him as saying.
Puitn recalled that an agreement on the basic principles of cooperation between the intelligence services of the CIS member-countries had been signed 25 years ago. "Since then, your partnership has become stable and fruitful confirming de facto its relevance and importance," the president said.
The President voiced confidence that the participants in the meeting will discuss in detail the key issues and outline the most promising areas of cooperation.
President of the International Association of Veterans of the Alpha Anti-Terrorism Unit, Sergey Goncharov, speaking with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the terrorist attack in St. Petersburg once again demonstrated the need for such coordination of the special services of the CIS countries.
"The terrorist threat in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan has grown recently, as the bulk of the militants who came from the CIS countries already managed to fight on the side of ISIS and now they are returning to their homeland. "Obviously, after a certain defeat in Syria, it is difficult for militants to find shelter elsewhere. If the information is confirmed that the terrorist was a native of Kyrgyzstan, the risk of ISIS militants returning to their countries will become the number one problem for our special services," he pointed out.
The expert is pessimistic about the possibility of rapid improvement of the situation. "If we create a coordinating council of Russia and the former Soviet republics, it will be very good, but at the same time, this problem will not be solved on an international scale without European countries and the United States. Perhaps, the growth of a terrorist threat will push the West to jointly fight against terrorism in the future. I hope that the US president Donald Trump will solve this problem at the nearest negotiations with Vladimir Putin," Sergei Goncharov expects.
As for the next steps, first of all the special services of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan need to unite their intelligence and operational efforts. "It is necessary for them to actively exchange information and prevent the penetration of bandits from their countries into our territory. It is necessary to regulate or toughen the migration flow to Russia," the President of the International Association of Veterans of the Alpha Anti-Terrorism Unit concluded.
A military observer of the TASS news agency, retired Colonel Viktor Litovkin, in turn, noted the inefficient interaction of Russian special services with special services of the CIS countries. "We need the intelligence services of all CIS countries to work together, according to the same plan and common rules. We need to exchange intelligence information, specific data, as well as we need a quick response to requests from foreign special services and reports on the movement of suspicious persons. Alas, this does not always work, because each special service thinks that it is smarter than the others and it does not have to coordinate its work closely with its neighbors. The result of it we saw in St. Petersburg," he concluded.
