MOSCOW, August 24. /TASS/. Russia has effective capabilities to protect its people from the threat of international terrorism, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the second stage of the United Russia party's congress on Tuesday.
"We have effective capabilities to maintain our security. First and foremost, to firmly protect Russia and our people from the threat of international terrorism. Regrettably, this threat remains. It is essential to understand this and to take an extremely responsible attitude," he said.
"It might seem to some that such threats are gone, that they existed long ago and elsewhere. Let me remind you that they existed just recently and some of them in our country. In the North Caucasus combat operations were in fact underway with major gangs of international terrorists. If it were not for our success in defeating them, in giving them a common rebuff, if it were not for the people of Dagestan, Chechnya and other republics, who stood up to fight against this evil, the horrors that are happening in Afghanistan today would have continued on our soil," Putin said.
He stressed that Russia was practically the sole country that had eliminated large terrorist groups and militants operating underground.
"Many thanks to the guys who accomplished that, sometimes at the cost of their own lives," he concluded.