Russians to launch anti-terror strikes

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered Interior Ministry troops to launch preventive anti-terrorist strikes.‘‘The I...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered Interior Ministry troops to launch preventive anti-terrorist strikes.

‘‘The Interior Ministry’s troops activities in this area must have a preventive character,’’ Putin emphasised while addressing a Kremlin gathering of top officials of the Russian special services, armed forces and law enforcement agencies.

‘‘We understand the serious tasks our security agencies, especially interior bodies and internal troops, are currently facing,’’ he said in his nationally televised remarks.

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Citing the recent terrorist attacks in London, Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, Israel and the Russian republics of Chechnya and Dagestan, he said that these events showed that terrorism remained a ‘‘major global threat’’.

Russia will ‘‘continue to play its important role in the united fight against terrorism’’, he added.

Putin asked the Federal Security Service (the FSB, formerly the KGB) to take resolute measures to curb the activities of militants, who are trying to destabilise normal life in Chechnya and other North Caucasian republics.

‘‘The prevention of a terrorist threat is a special challenge for the Federal Security Service,’’ he said.

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Several top military officials have, in recent times, repeatedly stated that Russia had the right to carry out preventive strikes on terrorist bases at any place in the world, if they posed a threat to the country’s security.

Last June, a statement from Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov made it clear that ‘‘a preventive strike is possible as a one-time measure to eliminate a terrorist threat against Russia, and only when we are absolutely sure that such a threat is clear and present’’.

Putin also asked the FSB to increase its efficiency in the fight against foreign secret services to protect Russia’s economic interests.