Putin: Terrorists Cannot be Divided into ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Ones

MOSCOW-Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned politicians against exploiting terrorist and radical extremist for political interests.

“And, of course, it is unacceptable and extremely dangerous to try to exploit terrorist and radical extremist groups for political and geopolitical interests,” Putin said in an interview to Azerbaijani State News Agency AZERTAC.

“In this endeavor, there can be no double standards; terrorists cannot be divided into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ ones,” the Russian leader said.

 “These are the very principles that our countries actively promote within the international community in an effort to broaden and strengthen as much as possible international cooperation at the political level as well as at the level of law enforcement bodies and special services,” he added.

“We are most certainly concerned about two hotbeds of instability, in Afghanistan and in the Middle East, that are situated in the immediate vicinity of the Russian, Azerbaijani and Iranian borders,” Putin noted. “They pose a grave threat of international terrorism and cross-border crime primarily due to the increased drug flow, arms trafficking and movement of fighters,” he said adding that “the recent terrorist attacks perpetrated in various regions of the world prove yet again that terrorism can be addressed solely through a common effort guided by the norms and principles of international law and coordinated by the UN.”

Russia-Azerbaijan-Iran anti-terror cooperation has good prospects

The Russian leader says the counter-terrorism cooperation of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran has good prospects.

“I believe there are also good prospects for intensifying interaction to counter terrorism and drug trafficking in a trilateral format,” Putin said.

“Today, we can say that Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran are engaged in a close dialogue on this issue,” he added. “Therefore, Russia collaborates with Baku both within the CIS Anti-Terrorism Center and on a bilateral basis. Russia and Teheran have similar key approaches as well. We see additional opportunities in enhanced multilateral anti-terrorism cooperation within the SCO.””Together with our Iranian partners, we are engaged in the Clean Caspian Sea operation aimed at cutting off drug trafficking routes. The Caspian Anti-Drug Group of Five forum has considerable potential,” the president said.

Itar Tass

H.M