Terrorist organizations pose military threat for CIS

Terrorist organizations pose a direct military threat to the CIS member states, believes Alexander Vakhrushev, member of the Russian Defense Ministry's Joint Staff. He voiced this opinion at a scientific and practical conference in Moscow devoted to fight against international terrorism in the CIS.

"Modern terrorism is a form of armed fight for political organizations that do not have an opportunity to engage in an open war, who do not have large armed forces," he said.

According to the expert, terrorism as a form of armed fight is now increasingly resorted to achieve "military and political goals". "Where an armed conflict breaks out, acts of terrorism always take place," Vakhrushev emphasized.

"For example, in 30 local wars and conflicts in different places of the world in 2003 parties resorted to terrorist activities to achieve their military and political goals in 90 percent of cases," he pointed out.

"The ideology of extremism, especially in the national and confessional forms" now poses the largest threat to stability in the CIS member states, he believes.

Fulfilling of the extremist ideology by terrorist organizations poses "first of all, a military threat to a state as it happened in the Badkhen dale in Kyrgyzstan, secondly, it can provoke a conflict between two states, as was the case between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan after the attempt on Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov, and thirdly, it can lead to a civil war, as it did in Tajikistan," Vakhrushev explained.

In his opinion, to efficiently fight against terrorism it is necessary "to neutralize organized structures of terrorist organizations, shut off their financing channels and, most importantly, to actively fight against extremist ideology".