MOSCOW, July 27 /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov said in an interview with Kommersant newspaper that it was necessary to build up international anti-terror cooperation.
Apart from having vast experience in anti-terror struggle, Russia has the authority of a state, which "has never used double standards in the sphere of counter-terrorism. It has always been guided by the importance for the world community to join efforts to repel a global terrorist threat," Syromolotov told the daily.
Syromolotov, an army general, was appointed to the post of Russian deputy foreign minister responsible for counteraction to terrorism in March this year. Prior to that, he had headed the Federal Security Service (FSB) Counter-Intelligence Service. He was in charge of security at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.
"The Islamic State (IS) is the embodiment of this (terrorist) threat but there are other dangerous components of the ‘terrorist international’ such as Al-Qaeda, the Taliban movement, Imarat Kavkaz and Hizb ut-Tahrir," Syromolotov said.
He noted that the struggle against terrorists should be based on international law and the decisions of the United Nations and its Security Council with consistent implementation of the principles of sovereignty and equality of states without trying — like some are doing now — to use certain groups in pursuit of their political and geopolitical purposes.
"It is dangerous and counter-productive to divide terrorists into bad guys and those who are so bad. Consequently, movements like Al-Qaeda and the Islamic States emerge. It is necessary to learn lessons of history and not to repeat mistakes," the Russian diplomat said in the interview.
According to Syromolotov, Russia has successful experience in fighting terrorism and in questions of averting it and dealing with its extremist manifestations. "International cooperation on these issues is certainly expedient," he stressed.