Eurasian Secret Services Daily Review AIA
FSB Director: terrorists seek nuclear weapons in Russia
Nikolai Patrushev
Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), Nikolai Patrushev, who is also chairman of the National Antiterrorist Committee, speaking at today’s session of the National Anti-Terrorist Committee, said terrorists were trying to get hold of nuclear weapons in Russia.
The powerful FSB leader confirmed that the National Counter-Terrorism Committee has credible information on the issue, news agency RIA Novosti reports.
According to the agency, the intelligence information stems from the Russian FSB, as well as from foreign intelligence partners. Organized terrorist groups seek both nuclear weapons and nuclear technology, Patrushev said. The FSB leader now stresses that it is of paramount importance to take efficient measures in protecting objects under the Ministry of Defence, as the agencies Rosatom, Rosprom and Roskosmos.
Patrushev noted that following the joint statement on a global initiative to counter nuclear terrorism acts adopted by the presidents of Russia and the United States after the Group of Eight summit in July 2006 in St. Petersburg, the security issue has risen to the top of the agenda, RIA Novosti reports.
Patrushev said that under the initiative, the two countries will physically protect nuclear facilities and improve measures to prevent terrorists from accessing nuclear materials and radioactive substances.
The head of the antiterrorism committee noted that the number of terrorist attacks in Russia last year almost halved.
"Counter-terrorist measures adopted in Russia in recent years have somewhat reduced terrorist activity on the country's territory," news agency quotes Patrushev as saying, citing joint action on all levels of government, security agencies, and civil society as a key factor in this.
ITAR-TASS cites Patrushev saying that the growth of radicalism, extremism and foreign religious expansion helping the spread of the terrorist ideology is seen in Russia.
“According to information of experts, there are about 5,000 websites that are actively used by extremist organizations and groups that spread in the net practical guidelines for the organization of the clandestine activity, the manufacture of home-made explosive devices, the choice of facilities for terrorist acts,” Patrushev said.
This prompts the need for NAC’s “additional measures for countering the ideology of terrorism, including by the counter-propagandist activity”. Institutions of civil society and the mass media should play an important role in this activity, Patrushev is quoted by ITAR-TASS as saying.
He also said “the holding Group IMA has developed a plan of measures for information and propagandist support of the struggle against terrorism.” Interfax writes that Patrushev has expressed concern over the spread of materials promoting extremism and terrorism in the form of printed products and through the Internet.
"What causes our concern is the virtually uncontrolled spread of materials of an explicitly extremist and terrorist nature in the form of printed products and via the Internet," Patrushev told the session. "The intensification of radicalism and extremism, as well as this foreign religious expansion" has contributed to the spread of the terrorist ideology, according to Patrushev.
The National Anti-Terrorist Committee should develop more measures aimed at countering the ideology of terrorism, including "active counter-propaganda efforts," he said, Interfax reports.