CSTO secretary general praises Belarus’ assistance following attack on Crocus City Hall

CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov praised the active assistance provided by the Belarusian security services to Russia after the terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall. He made the statement during an interview with RIA Novosti, BelTA has learned.

The CSTO secretary general emphasized the importance of how quickly the special services responded, and the criminals were detained in the first hours after the terrorist attack. “Belarusian special services actively assisted Russia in preventing the terrorists who committed the attack on Crocus City Hall from crossing the border,” he said.

Speaking about the reaction of the CSTO states to the terrorist attack, Imangali Tasmagambetov stated that the heads of all member states of the organization expressed their condolences to the Russian people. Among the first to express their condolences to Russian President Vladimir Putin were Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and Kazakhstan President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev. “The CSTO countries showed solidarity in condemning this inhuman crime,” he added.

The CSTO secretary general added that the organization's analysts came to the conclusion that the terrorist attack had an unusual format. “Along with the scale of the terrorist attack, the brutality and the short time period during which the crime was committed, it should be noted that the criminals did not make demands, and for quite a long time no one took responsibility for the attack, and when it happened it looked somehow unconvincing. Obviously, this is not just a ‘false flag operation’. The situation is much more complicated and therefore no less tragic. Rather, on the contrary, the misunderstanding of motives and a major demonstration of the interethnic relations factor brings additional tension in society,” Imangali Tasmagambetov said.

“Of course, we will learn about the results of the investigation, and we will be able to judge the scale of the threat. Indeed, terrorism is acquiring new features and is used as a tool of hybrid warfare to provoke discontent with the authorities, civil division, interethnic and interreligious discord. This format of terrorist attacks is increasingly resembling sabotage. This sets the task before all CSTO member states to develop effective tools to counter this threat,” the secretary general said.

In his words, some states use terrorism to realize their geopolitical interests. “In general, improving the effectiveness of policies to counter terrorism is a long-standing problem of international relations. Modern states, unfortunately, still cannot come to a common position regarding the rejection of such methods of conducting political and ideological struggle. There is still no universally recognized definition of terrorism, which makes it difficult to coordinate the actions of states in combating this phenomenon. The reasons are obvious - a number of international actors use terrorism to realize their geopolitical interests. However, with the formation of a polycentric world, it seems that additional opportunities will arise to develop an international consensus within the framework of the anti-terrorist agenda. For decades now, there have been structures within various regional organizations that deal with these very issues and coordinate the efforts of states to combat a common evil. Let us hope that these efforts will lead to a renewal of the international anti-terrorist agenda and make this policy more effective,” Imangali Tasmagambetov added.