Terrorism in Central Asia have a long history. But you can not say that they are not fighting the local authorities, and they often act jointly with other neighboring countries. For example, in 2015, law enforcement officers from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan managed to stop recruiting activities emissaries of various terrorist organizations who have chosen the tactics of work in the international trains to Russia from Central Asian States.
But all this is “a drop in the ocean”. Because the Islamists in the Russian Federation they have constant frequency, so they still leak across the border. So, today it became known that in the Volga Federal district was arrested by members of the terrorist organization “Islamic liberation Party” (“Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami”), is prohibited in Russia. During the investigation, detectives determined that members of the cell (citizens of Tajikistan) prepared a major operation.
In this regard, I would like to think that the Russian government will establish tighter control over migration flows into the country from Central Asian States. However, such initiatives are not heard. But this does not prevent the expert community from time to time to focus attention on the problem. “What I should have done, and for a long time is to introduce a visa regime with the countries of Central Asia. Thereby dramatically reducing the level of immigrant crime, drug trafficking – and, of course, the flood of radical Muslims. Such a step to cooperation with these countries would not hurt in any way, as they have for the most part unilateral, and is funding local modes”, – shared his opinion of the consultant Timofey sheviakov.
Journalist, Deputy editor of Department of policy of the online newspaper “LOOK.R” Mikhail Moshkin, also believes that if the security forces cope with the growing trend of appearance of emissaries of the Islamists in Russia, cooperation with the Central Asian countries have not yet reached the required level: “what “imported” Islamism (including those coming from the countries of Central Asia) becoming a problem – it is more than obvious. From relatively recent examples, in addition to prevented in Nizhny Novgorod the attack, we can mention the verdict of the Supreme court’s four “Tver recruiters of ISIS” (banned in Russia), and it was another four, which considers the Verkh-Isetsky court of Ekaterinburg. In all cases, is recruiters come from Central Asian countries… “
What we know about prevented, and not committed terrorist acts, and arrested recruiters, is itself evidence on the effectiveness of our special services. A number of experts believes that a great help in coordination of counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence will be the merging of the SVR and FSB that connects the work of intelligence agencies, both outside and inside the country. Into the weak spots, according to observers, are rather problems of external relations. In particular, in the framework of the CIS coordination of action to counter threats to security, not as good as I would like. The same applies to the insufficient level of cooperation between security forces in the framework of the SCO. That “the situation in the territory between India and Russia remains tense” in the last week, said Vladimir Putin – then President, called for “decisive action” to help the Afghanistan… In one of the recent forecasts of the American center Stratfor has said that “Central Asia, in particular, will face problems of political instability, social unrest and the threat of militant rhetoric” – with emphasis on Uzbekistan, where after the death of Islam Karimov is in the process of regime change. Therefore, the “recipe” is obvious – the strengthening of cooperation with the authorities of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, which now actively promotes the interests of their neighbors to the South in the UN security Council”.
The fight against real terrorists, it seems to us in the form of war in Syria, where Damascus and Moscow are trying to “crush” the Islamic state (banned in Russia). On the background of this epic struggle as the battle for Aleppo or the same Mosul, where the game actively joined US, Central Asia somehow overlooked. Of course, you can accuse Moscow that it focuses not there, because there are much closer places which you go to the recruiters of the Islamists. But here it is necessary to take into account that the victory over terrorism is not only the extermination of fanatical killers or recruiters, and the destruction of their sponsors and sources of funding. However, intelligence experts draw attention to the fact that some terrorist organizations in the Central Asian countries have long switched to self-financing, so it is now in Moscow’s interest to establish close cooperation with the secret services of the countries of Central Asia, or after the end of the Syrian campaign, have to start new – near its borders.
