Speaker of the State Duma Viacheslav Volodin during a meeting of the CSTO parliamentary assembly called for the formation of a single list of terrorist organizations.
According to him, "this is extremely important for the implementation of the priority associated with building up the CSTO's capabilities to combat international terrorism."
In general, when you read such news, at first you are very surprised: why, there are still no such lists yet?
Is terrorism officially recognized as the main threat or is it still the Stone Age in this part?
Such discoveries are doubly, or even tripled, surprising against the background of the fact that we constantly hear statements about the need to unite all kinds of bases, digitalize public administration systems, and so on.
That is, an extremely strange thing turns out.
All these bases and systems, about which the society has so many questions, ranging from ethical to the problems of information leakage and threats to national security, seem to exist.
But terrorism, where one would like to have constant, round-the-clock, systematic work not only of the security forces, but also of all state and supranational structures, paradoxically turns out to be outside the brackets.
How can this be?
Viacheslav Volodin emphasized that if such a list appears, the special services of the CSTO member states will have the opportunity to interact at a completely new qualitative level, that is, legislative gaps will be eliminated and an organization recognized as terrorist in one of the CSTO countries will not be able to legally work in another.
It's great that this initiative has finally appeared at the end of 2020.
And it’s a pity that this is only happening today.
No, I really don't understand how this is possible in principle.
The problem of combating terrorism in the world is not a year or even ten years old.
It is terrorism that is the number one threat, a real and tangible threat, in contrast to the various myths that are sometimes so strenuously imposed on countries and peoples in order to divert their attention from really serious things and carry them away with an entertaining fight with windmills.
But why, then, even within the framework of the CSTO, which has existed since 1992, is there still no single list of terrorists?
Have we had few terrorist attacks since then?
In general, it seems that this is the most important humanitarian problem of mankind today.
Having played with information technologies and carried away with the invention of imaginary threats and an uncompromising struggle against them in order to achieve very specific political goals, the world establishment has become so far from the people and pressing problems that in the end it turned out to be simply unable to withstand real and specific challenges, with faced by our planet.
There is not the slightest doubt that terror by itself will not disappear anywhere and will not dissipate.
This has been demonstrated by recent events in France.
The terrorist attacks, which once again shocked this country, were unable to resist neither the power and law enforcement structures, nor the civilian authorities, which were also not ready.
What did the Nice authorities do in response to the attack on the temple?
The temples were closed!
I don’t remember that after the terrorist attacks in the metro or at the airports, these objects were closed.
And here nothing better was invented.
And, by the way, let us recall the attacks in the Brussels airport and the metro in 2016, when it turned out that there was neither an adequate system for tracking potential or real terrorists, nor a normal system of interaction between security officials in this area within Europe itself.
Russia, of course, stands alone here.
We must admit that the bitter experience that our country went through in the 1990s and 2000s taught us a lot.
In terms of anti-terrorist activities, Russia today is one of the leading countries in the world.
Yes, we know, we can, we can fight terrorists.
We can share our experience, for which, by the way, our European colleagues turn to us.
But, of course, the need has long been ripe to go further and join efforts with other countries.
To begin with, at least where it has been possible for a long time, within the framework of our own "closely related" unions, of which we are members.
Security, it must be admitted, has always been, is and, I hope, will remain one of those areas where Russia is among the leading countries.
We are capable of being a locomotive and creating trends.
If there are some difficult moments in interaction with our colleagues in the CSTO on economic and political issues, then security is exactly the area that was and should remain the guarantor and guarantee of stable relations with partners, where Russia justifiably plays a leading role.
It is critical today to move from words to action immediately.
Because time is shrinking and the advantage is on the side of those who act quickly.
Ukraine, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Karabakh, Transnistria - the ring around us is shrinking, delays are unacceptable.
International terrorism is one of the real instruments of destabilization and where, first and foremost, no doubt, it is necessary to combine efforts.
It is necessary for a very long time!
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.