ST. PETERSBURG, September 12. /TASS/. Russian and foreign intelligence services see a mounting threat as terrorists have been widely using drones, First Deputy Director of the Russian Federal Security Service Army General Sergey Smirnov said on Thursday.
"Competent Russian authorities are receiving information about mounting threats related to the fact that members of international terrorist organizations are using drones," said Smirnov, who chaired a meeting in St. Petersburg of the Council of Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization attended by the delegations from India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
"A major danger here is that there are risks that terror attacks can be committed by installing self-made explosive devices on them [drones] or by spraying toxic substances with their use," Smirnov noted.
Besides, Russia’s cooperation with other countries’ competent authorities demonstrates that "currently foreign partners of some states pay great attention to the issues of countering the use of drones for terrorist purposes," the FSB official said.
"In this context, we suggested exchanging experience in this sphere and everyone backed this initiative. After summarizing and analysing the experience of competent authorities from the countries, which are part of our organization (SCO RATS), we plan to approve joint measures of cooperation on countering and neutralizing this threat," he said.
At the meeting of the Council of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure of the SCO, the sides focused on countering the threat posed by the use of drones by terrorists.
On September 11, Russia’s State Duma (lower house) passed a bill in the first reading, empowering police, the National Guard and special services to identify persons flying drones and halt these flights in some situations. Under the bill, the security agencies will get the right "to cut short the stay of unmanned aerial vehicles in the airspace" for the purpose of protecting citizens and in the process of carrying out operational search measures," including by way of suppressing or transforming the signals of unmanned aerial vehicles’ remote control and also by way of damaging or destroying such vehicles.".