Suppression of terrorism in Russia will continue – Medvedev
Published: 30 March, 2010, 04:42
Edited: 05 April, 2010, 16:02
Russian Federation, Moscow: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev speaks during an emergency session of the Security Council at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 29, 2010. (Ria Novosti / Vladimir Rodionov)
(13.3Mb) embed videoTAGS: Medvedev, Russia, Terrorism
The Russian government will continue its tough measures suppressing terrorism, Dmitry Medvedev stated during the emergency meeting dedicated to the blasts in the Moscow Metro.
“The suppression of terror and fight against terrorism will be continued,” he said. “We will continue operations against terrorists without compromise and till the end,” the head of the state said during an emergency meeting on Monday.
“I’d like all the heads of law enforcement agencies to follow this line,” Dmitry Medvedev said.
The blasts in the Moscow Metro are “obviously a continuation of terrorist activity and the main investigation line will be built upon this assumption,” he emphasized.
The country’s leader ordered to the Prosecutor General and the head of the Investigating Committee to control the investigation process and personally report to the president.
Dmitry Medvedev emphasized it should be done “without hindering the Metro’s operation. As soon as the investigation measures are taken, the movement should be re-established so the city will not suffer,” he said.
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The Russian president has paid a visit to one of the sites of the tragedy – Lubyanka Metro station. The escalator took the president downstairs to the platform where he laid flowers at the scene of the blast.
Following the visit, Medvedev said the masterminds of the terrorist acts in the Moscow Metro would be found and destroyed.
“These are animals. Irrespective of their motives, what they do is a crime by any law and any moral standards,” he said. “I have no doubt that we will find and destroy them all.”
According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the deadly blasts in the Moscow subway could have been organized with support from abroad. "I do not rule this out, nothing can be ruled out here," Lavrov pointed out.
The top Russian diplomat said that Moscow "is well informed about the so-called no-man's land on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan," where "the terrorist underground has entrenched itself."
"We know that many terrorist attacks – not only in Afghanistan, but in other countries too, are plotted in that area… Sometimes, the trail leads to the Caucasus," he said.
Sergey Lavrov urged the global community to coordinate efforts in the fight against international terrorism and its financial sponsors.
According to the head of the State Duma Security Committee, Vladimir Vasiliev, Monday’s bombings came as a response to the anti-terror operation in the North Caucasus.
“We have no doubts about who is standing behind these blasts because recently there have been a series of operations in the North Caucasus to liquidate terror leaders and active terrorists,” he said.
A number of Russian politicians have voiced their opinion on how Russia should tackle the situation.
State Duma speaker and Chairman of the United Russia Party's Supreme Council, Boris Gryzlov, has called on Russians to unite against the threat of terror and not to let “those who hate people and want to destroy the peaceful life” of Russia’s citizens to “intimidate” them.
According to Fair Russia party leader Nikolay Levichev, the country should start a full-scale fight with the ideology of terrorism. To do so, Russia needs an effective socio-economic policy in the North Caucasus region.
Likhachev said that people in the North Caucasus should have conditions when they will be given an opportunity to develop, have an education and have careers. “If we do not work in this direction we will be unable to live quietly,” he said.
According to Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, Russia should revive capital punishment for such crimes as terrorism.
“It is difficult to imagine a crime which would be more horrible than what happened today,” he said. Zyuganov added that those who ordered the attacks should be first to be punished.
Liberal Democrat leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky suggested Russia should “reinforce” functions of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in the North Caucasus and all over the country and conduct more effective work against corruption in the capital.
30.03.2010, 02:45
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This party has been in power for how long? Yet there are still attacks? There should be zero. Puttin was going to kill them on the toliet, Medvedev will surpress them. How about just stopping it without violence. Stop killing people because firstly I am really tired of worrying abour getting blow up going to work. Secondly, my tax dollars should be going to improving the community and peoples lives not kill people and for poloticians to feed me lines about what they are going to do so they can get elected.












Medvedev said, “These are animals. Irrespective of their motives, what they do is a crime by any law and any moral standard…I have no doubt that we will find and destroy them all.” I agree with him only partly. Terrorism against innocent civilians is indeed a terrible crime for which there can never be an excuse. But the perpetrators are not animals. They are human beings who, no doubt, have themselves suffered greatly in their lives directly because of the actions of the Russian State against them, against their loved ones and against their people. Acknowledging and understanding this would be more useful than simply calling them animals. Nor can Russian authorities “destroy them all”, because new traumatised Chechens will step up in place of the old. Two happy women did not wake up one morning and decide to kill as many Muscovites as they could. The cause goes much deeper. In 1944 Stalin, in the name of the Russian Soviet state, deported the entirety of the Chechen and Ingush people from their homeland, as if they indeed were animals – as if they were so much cattle. Stalin’s successors, including his post-Soviet successors, saw no reason to treat them as if they were human after all by apologising and reconciling with them. Forced Russification followed, as did the Chechens’ totally predictable resistance to it, culminating almost as soon as Russia’s ability to exert force weakened in the ghastly Chechen wars. Russia has a long history of treating Chechens, and not only Chechens, with a lack of human dignity, Chechens react, and the Russian President re-enforces their anger by again calling them “animals”. If at any time over the last 60 years Stalin’s successors had had the wisdom, courage or even just the simple humanity of seeking genuine human reconciliation with Chechens, perhaps there would not be so many grieving and frightened people in Moscow today. Suppressing terror is certainly necessary, but so is avoiding its causes in the first place.