MOSCOW, June 15. /TASS/. The United States itself created the terrorist movements Al-Qaeda and the Taliban (both banned in Russia) and is still actively using both in pursuit of geopolitical aims, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, said at a meeting of BRICS high representatives responsible for national security on Wednesday.
"Al-Qaeda and the Taliban were created by the Americans and continue to be actively used by the US secret services in pursuit of geopolitical aims," he said.
Patrushev stressed that Russia continued to exert the necessary efforts to counter international terrorism.
"However, they cannot be effective enough without the entire international community playing its role and presenting a common antiterrorist front," Patrushev stressed.
He drew attention to the fact that terrorism was one of the tools in the West’s "arsenal of hybrid wars." At the same time, he continued, Russia, as before, was ready for cooperation on the counter-terrorist track.
"Although the international terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria have now lost much of their original strength, they have been changing tactics and expanding their activity in new areas. Young people are increasingly involved in their activities. There is an obvious trend towards the merger of the terrorist underground with drug, weapons, human and organs trafficking," Patrushev warned.
The meeting of BRICS high representatives in charge of security issues was the twelfth in a row. It was held by video link under China’s chairmanship. The purpose of the association uniting Brazil, Russia, India China and South Africa, created in 2006 at the initiative of Russia, is the development of comprehensive cooperation. The group’s current chair is China.