CONVERSATION WITH RUSSIA'S FIRST DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER VYACHESLAV TRUBNIKOV (PUBLISHED BY INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS JOURNAL NO. 9-10, 2003, UNDER THE HEADING "NEW TERRORISM REJECTION PHILOSOPHY SHAPED UP")
Unofficial translation from Russian
Problems of the fight against international terrorism was a key subject in the general debate at the 58th UN General Assembly session. Russia's President Vladimir Putin recalled stating at the Millennium Summit three years previously that terrorism was a common enemy for the united nations.
"Was Russia's voice heard at that time, in 2000? Did everyone understand the seriousness of that threat at the time?"
The September 11 events demonstrated that, unfortunately, the answer is "no." Meanwhile, the hand of the murderers who perpetrated the acts of terrorism in Moscow and New York, in Chechnya and other regions of Russia, and against UN personnel in Baghdad is the same.
Russia's First Deputy Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov offers his views of the subject in comments to International Affairs.
Vyacheslav Trubnikov: I would like to stress that, in his address to the 58th session of the UN General Assembly session, the President of Russia did not identify anyone personally as "negligent" or "biased" listeners of his UN presentation three years previously, when he had characterized terrorism as a common enemy of the United Nations. The latest developments, especially the September 11, 2001 tragedy in the US, brought our President's warning home to the overwhelming majority of the UN members and made them take a different look at what Russia came up against in Chechnya and at who blew up apartment houses in Russia's cities, including its capital.
Those who used to flirt with the Afghan Taliban have now recognized their links to Al-Qaeda and their role in training international terrorists on Afghanistan's territory, in particular, for Chechnya. The authorities of certain nations, who closed their eyes to the financing of terrorists, have now taken steps to stop cash flows to international terrorists. A broad anti-terrorism coalition has taken shape under the UN aegis.
Nevertheless, even today we come up against cases of government and political short-sightedness or open manifestations of appeasement tactics towards terrorism and double standards. There is hardly any other explanation for the fact that terrorist Zakayev freely travels from Denmark to Britain, where he is quite comfortable as well, especially after the British authorities have granted "political asylum" to Boris Berezovsky. Facts of the same caliber are the quiet life of terrorist Zalimkhan Yandarbiyev in Qatar and the relatively unhindered regrouping of the remnants of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in parts of Pakistan bordering on Afghanistan.
This prompts the answer to the question whether everyone understood or has now recognized the seriousness of the threat posed by international terrorism.
International Affairs: Still, Vyacheslav Ivanovich, what is international terrorism today? The UN and other international organizations are working continuously to identify and bring to light the essence of this worst scourge of our times. Laws on fighting international terrorism have been passed in Russia, Britain and other countries.
Nevertheless, it is a fact that no conclusive definition of this phenomenon has been offered so far.
Vyacheslav Trubnikov: Indeed, the world community has so far failed to produce a generally acceptable definition of terrorism. The reason is not just that terrorism as a phenomenon is constantly mutating, evoking new slogans and using ever more sophisticated technologies and techniques in its practices. This failure is a result of a number of political, social, psychological and even historical factors which, in spite of the general recognition of the scope of the threat posed by today's terrorism, continue to condition substantive differences in approaches to the essence of this phenomenon. For example, arguments continue against categorizing actions taken by national-liberation movements in their struggle as terrorist, or for equating to terrorism actions by states that are at odds with the international law. One can hardly expect that these profound contradictions or the old logic of confrontational mentality would be overcome overnight.
However, the difficulties involved in working out a common definition of terrorism should not generally block the continued efforts to shape a single international-law environment for fighting terrorism or practical actions to mount a joint rebuff to terrorism. These efforts are focused on those manifestations of terrorism which pose a particular threat to security, and they are based on 12 universal anti-terrorism conventions and protocols to them. After Russia has ratified the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, Russia has become a party to 11 of them. (We are to ratify the 1991 Convention on the Marking of Plastic Explosives for the Purpose of Detection.) We advocate the early accession of the maximum number of nations to these conventions.
At the same time we are working hard for the final harmonization of the Comprehensive Convention Against International Terrorism (which, incidentally, attempts to formulate a general definition of terrorism) that has been proposed by India and the Russia-sponsored International Convention on the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, and also for finding solutions that would enable formulation of agreed criteria for assessing terrorism and terrorist actions.
In this context one promising idea seems to be the drafting of a EU-sponsored comprehensive European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism which under certain conditions (as an open document) could pave the way to the formulation of a commonly recognized definition of terrorism.
International Affairs: It is generally understood that disconcerted national efforts, however energetic, cannot bring success in the fight against international terrorism. Following recognition of the idea of international cooperation, how good progress is being made in the practical construction of an anti-terrorism front, primarily by Russia, the US, Britain, Germany, France, China and other countries? Examples of joint efforts after September 11, 2001 are well-known, and they are quite impressive, but it seems that what has been accomplished is not enough for a decisive breakthrough. What do you think should be the focus of concrete joint efforts in this area?
Vyacheslav Trubnikov: Russia is energetically supporting the efforts made by the world community with the central coordinating role of the UN and its Security Council in fighting international terrorism. It made an important contribution to the establishment and strengthening of the international anti-terrorism coalition that took shape after the September 11, 2001 tragedy in the US and is consistently advocating the idea of building up a global system of countering the new challenges and threats on the basis of the international law.
Today we see that, in spite of all the difficulties and setbacks, the general policy line for strengthening a broad international anti-terrorism alliance is winning ever greater support. A new political philosophy of denying and rejecting every manifestation of terrorism is gradually emerging, and on this basis key international organizations, including regional ones, are becoming actively involved in the fight against terrorism. Over the recent period the problem of suppressing terrorism has won its place among top strategic priorities for G8, ASEAN, EU, the Council of Europe and the OSCE. Multilateral collaboration and actions within the CIS, SCC and the Collective Security Treaty Organization are becoming increasingly energetic in this sphere.
Meanwhile, one cannot overlook the fact that the threat of terrorism continues to grow and is becoming multi-dimensional. International terrorism is speedily reshaping itself and proving its readiness to deliver one strike after another in any part of the world. The invigoration of international terrorist structures that we are witnessing, the "spillover" of Al-Qaeda cells primarily to Southeast Asia, the rebirth of the Taliban's combat potential in Afghanistan and the concentration of various radical terrorist elements in the post-Saddam Iraq are all dangerous signs that confirm these assessments.
Today it is more important than ever before to focus on developing a flexible global system that would be capable of both providing for prevention of terrorism and other new challenges and threats and enabling adequate measures to resolve terrorism-related crisis situations.
This extremely complicated mission can only be accomplished through strengthening the UN, which ensures the indisputable legitimacy of international efforts and cements the unity of the anti-terrorism coalition.
The following goals, in our view, are now coming to the forefront of practical work:
- improving the anti-terrorism framework in the international law, mechanisms of legal assistance, including the extradition of terrorists with a view to the practical implementation of the "either extradite or put on trial" principle, and making liability for the crimes of terrorism inescapable;
- invigorating the suppression of the financing of terrorism, including the stopping of channels of support for terrorism by means of drug trafficking and money laundering;
- blocking terrorists' access to weapons of mass destruction and means of their delivery or to the possible use by them of biological substances or nuclear and radioactive materials;
- measures to enforce the right of people to protection from terrorism;
- enhancing control over commerce in conventional weapons, including portable surface-to-air missile complexes.
It is perfectly clear that in view of such a broad range of problems to be addressed it is extremely important to coordinate the efforts of international regional and sectoral organizations which, for their part, are serving as pilots in leading nation-ships by UN beacons in the practical implementation of the anti-terrorism strategy.
International Affairs: There are encouraging signs, from major actions, such as the rout of the Taliban in Afghanistan or, partially, the Iraq operation, to specific operations, like the interception of the Igla missile shipments, which clearly demonstrated possibilities for concerted actions by three nations. Where should we expect new, perhaps, even more efficient actions of the secret services of the nations cooperating in this sphere?
Vyacheslav Trubnikov: The successful joint operations of the secret services of Russia, the US and Britain to intercept the contraband Igla shipments graphically demonstrated that the joint fight against the common threat of terrorism is eroding invisible barriers and forming a new atmosphere of growing trust even in such a very specific and sensitive sphere as cooperation between secret services. This is a very important and encouraging indicator of our growing collaboration on the anti-terrorism front.
Indeed, in their contacts and practical activities terrorists still find it immeasurably easier to cross national borders than do those still often disparate forces that oppose them in performing their duties of ensuring national security in the present circumstances.
The situation when the fight against the well coordinated and internationally organized terrorist network can be compared to a bicycle chase after a racing Ferrari cannot be tolerated. That is why we consider it a priority to assist in the concerted and coordinated efforts of the secret services, to broaden opportunities for operational information exchanges and to organize and carry out joint counter-terrorism operations. The level which we have now reached in working together with our partners makes it possible to address the most complicated missions and constitutes a serious contribution towards the implementation of the international anti-terrorism strategy from whatever regional angle.
International Affairs: The foreign press speculates that Russian territory with its surplus military technology and neglected defense industries is a shopping area where you can buy anything, and therefore a source of weapons for terrorist organizations.
Vyacheslav Trubnikov: Russia remains strongly committed to all the international obligations in the sphere of export controls and advocates the tightening of the existing non-proliferation regimes. We also support the policy line towards tightening control over commerce in conventional weapons, including light firearms. In particular, we attach special importance to the practical application of the elements of control over portable surface-to-air missile exports that are being developed under the Wassenaar Arrangements. I would like to note that this approach is winning ever greater support and understanding, in particular, as an important component of the measures planned by G8 to upgrade transport security systems.
We are in the final stages of inter-agency harmonization of the last UN "sectoral" anti-terrorism convention that has not yet been ratified, the 1991 Montreal Convention on the Marking of Plastic Explosives for the Purpose of Detection. When it is duly ratified, the Convention will help substantially strengthen our capability to suppress illegal trafficking in explosives.
International Affairs: The other day we received in our editorial offices a Central Asian ambassador, and he said, among other things, that although terrorist militias have been routed in Afghanistan, not a single drug laboratory has been affected. These laboratories are intact and functioning, and their output is effectively delivered, mostly through Central Asia and Russia, to other countries of the world, while the proceeds of this business are used in large measure to finance international terrorism. What can be said on the subject?
Vyacheslav Trubnikov: Russia cannot help being increasingly alarmed by the growing flow of contraband drugs, primarily heroin, from Afghanistan's territory. The main routes of dug trafficking through Central Asia into Eastern and Western Europe are known to pass through Russia. A sizable share of proceeds from the sale of Afghan opiates is used to fund terrorist groups in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Clearly, this problem cannot be resolved through disconcerted efforts. That is why Russia has come up with the initiative of drafting a UN-sponsored comprehensive international strategy to stamp out the Afghan drugs threat. The principal focus of our approach is a combination of more vigorous support for Afghanistan's transition government as it rebuilds the country's economy, struggles against poppy cultivation and drugs production and develops and strengthens the law-enforcement and judicial systems, on the one hand, and the establishment of anti-drugs "safety belts" along the entire perimeter of Afghanistan's borders, on the other.
To this end we are actively working with our foreign policy partners, including within G8 and through Russia-EU contacts, with a view to the optimum engagement of the potential of the international community for the accomplishment of this global mission. A major precondition of success as we see it is an enhanced coordinating role of the UN and the continuous buildup of the anti-drugs structures of that organization. One practical step in that direction is Russia's decision to make a regular contribution to the Fund of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
International Affairs: More on financing. Many people indeed cannot understand the workings of the mechanism used to finance terrorism. How can money be freely funneled for the purpose? How can bank transactions and accounts be used, etc.? What is the real situation in that respect?
Vyacheslav Trubnikov: Identification and efficient stopping of the channels of financial support for terrorist groups and organizations is indeed one of the more important and, simultaneously, extremely complex tasks facing our country and the world community as part of the ongoing joint efforts in putting up a strong barrier in the way of the global terrorist threat.
Today we are witnessing the rapid fusion of terrorist activities and transnational crime. The masterminds of terrorism are resorting to weapons and drugs trafficking and money laundering in order to secure financing for terrorist structures. Crime bosses for their part are extensively using methods borrowed from terrorists, such as politicized or religious ideological justification for their criminal dealings. As a matter of fact, terrorism has now established itself as a special "business" that is capable of mobilizing huge financial resources. In the view of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the annual world profits from illegal trafficking in Afghan drugs alone amounts to some 25 billion dollars.
The channels of funding of terrorism can only be stopped through the efforts of the largest possible number of countries, international monetary and lending institutions and national financial, banking and insurance structures. A proper framework for such collaboration is provided by the 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, and also by the international standards and rules for the suppression of money laundering and the financing of terrorism that are being drawn up and monitored by the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), to which Russia acceded last June.
Recently our country actively joined in the efforts to shape up an international financial control system, one of the major goals of which is to suppress the financing of terrorism. A wealth of experience has been accumulated both in the legislative and in the administrative and regulatory sphere and more and more results are generated by cooperation between specialized financial intelligence agencies both on a bilateral basis and through collaboration between Russia's Financial Monitoring Committee and its partners from the specialized Egmont Group. All this is greatly broadening our horizons in addressing the practical issues of suppressing the financing of international terrorism, including Chechen terrorism that is particularly sensitive to us.
International Affairs: As regards Chechnya, indeed, there are many things that people just cannot understand, and the financing of militants is one of them. People ask simple questions: are there banks somewhere in Chechen mountains or gorges that get multimillion transfers? Generally, what are the mechanisms used to finance militants in Chechnya or supply them with weapons, of which they have no shortage?
Vyacheslav Trubnikov: Major forces of terrorists and their infrastructure were destroyed in the course of the counter-terrorist operation of the federal forces. But indeed, Al-Qaeda's money and instructors continue to work in Chechnya, and foreign mercenaries are still there. The continued bandit attacks in Znamenskoye, Grozny, Mozdok, other parts of Chechnya constitute obvious attempts to frustrate and reverse the process of political settlement in the republic that has been given by the March referendum a clear direction for progress. The organizers and backers of the bandits operating in Chechnya do not spare money for this purpose. According to the latest information, Aslan Maskhadov and the Arab mercenary Abu Walid received three million dollars from abroad to thwart the presidential elections in the republic. Terrorists are planning acts of terrorism and subversion at civilian facilities, targeting the peaceful population. It is important to remember in this context that Chechnya is used to train fighters for international terrorist structures and to finetune methods of carrying out major terrorist actions in various parts of the world.
This is further proof of the need for the broadest possible and most diversified international collaboration in stopping the channels of financing of terrorist structures wherever they may be.
In this context we attach immense importance to stepping up the activities of UN structures and to organizing and maintaining regular information exchanges and coordination between the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the Security Council and the UNSC Committee on Sanctions against the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and persons and organizations involved with them that fall under the effect of the UNSC resolutions 1267 (1999), 1390 (2002) and 1455 (2003). The decision of the committee to include Chechen terrorists Zalimkhan Yandarbiyev and Shamil Basayev in the sanctions list and a similar decision by the EU to include the above persons in their list of terrorists constitute an important and even momentous step that testifies to the readiness of the international community to act concertedly and harmoniously in fighting terrorism and to use to this end all the instruments available to it, including those aimed at strangling the terrorist threat economically.
