April 22, 2021
The delegation of the CIS Anti-Terrorism Center led by its Head Andrey Novikov took part in the 2021 OSCE Counter-Terrorism Conference “Reinforcing a Comprehensive Approach to Preventing and Countering Terrorism and VERLT in a Changing Landscape” organized by the Swedish OSCE Chairpersonship in the cooperation with the OSCE Transnational Threats Department.
In his opening remarks the CIS ATC Head said that ISIS and Al-Qaeda as well as associated terrorist groups continue to pose the main threat to global security. High risks of potential terrorist threats to the CIS states of the Central Asian region are still there that is not only due to situation in the neighboring Afghanistan, but also because of the return of the radicalized citizens who have combat experience in the ranks of the terrorist organizations in Syria and Iraq.
According to him, a global crisis of 2020 caused by the new coronavirus pandemic has made significant adjustments in the international cooperation, including in the security area.
Terrorist and extremist organizations have attempted to employ crises for recruiting new members, propagating their ideology, undermining the governments’ authority. The transfer of their activity into the cyber-space has multiplied the risks of spreading jihadist ideas, far-right and far-left radicalism, youth passion to radical ideas.
The developing situation once again proves the relevance of anti-terrorism cooperation of both states, international and regional organizations, points at the necessity to find common ground in order to take measures to address the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism, the CIS ATC Head added.
Andrey Novikov highlighted the importance of comprehensive work by governments and civil society institutions in counter terrorism activities such as repatriating and reintegrating women and children into normal life after ideological indoctrination by terrorists.
The Head of CIS ATC said that within the frameworks of the existing Program of cooperation of the CIS member-states in combating terrorism and other violent manifestations of extremisms the countries accumulate and exchange data on foreign terrorist-fighters though a Specialized Databank of the Anti-Terrorism Center. As of today the Databank has more than 10 thousand records of the wanted terrorists. Through systematic update of the wanted list and established information logistics at the inter-state lever, the CIS countries have gained high level of understanding of the importance of such work, inclusion of not only national security agencies but law enforcement, border security, financial intelligence units into all legal procedures in accordance with their mandate, he noted.
Since December 2020 the CIS ATC’s Specialized Databank can be reached through the International Databank on Countering Terrorism which was created in 2008 as part of implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1373. Today the International Databank connects 57 special services from 43 countries and 8 specialized institutions of the international organizations from Europe, Asia, Africa and America. Its users now are able to make requests to the information resources of the CIS ATC, including information on countering terrorist narratives, samples of extremist literature and forensic examination conclusions on the signs of hatred and incitement of discord between nationalities and confessions, guidelines on counter-terrorism and theological examinations.
According to the Conference organizers, the two-day online event was attended by almost 350 participants from the OSCE member-states, partners for cooperation, international and regional organizations, academia, NGOs and civil society institutions.
* VERLT– Violent Extremism and Radicalisation that Lead to Terrorism.
