Anatoly E Safonov
Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for International Cooperation in the Fight Against Terrorism and Transnational Organised Crime
New Delhi
24 October 2006
institutional mechanism, Russia has said Pakistan was not doing enough to fight
terrorism in general or to improve the security situation in Afghanistan in particular.
"Islamabad is doing a lot to fight terrorism but not enough ... it is insufficient ... this is my
impartial assessment," Special Representative of the President of the Russian
Federation for International Cooperation in the Fight Against Terrorism and Transnational
Organised Crime Anatoly E Safonov told this newspaper.
On Tuesday, Mr Safonov and his delegation met with their Indian counterparts led by
Additional Secretary (International Organisations) KC Singh in the Ministry of External
Affairs for the fourth meeting of the India-Russia joint working group on counter-terrorism.
Referring to the July 11 Mumbai train blasts, Mr Safonov said India and Russia would
continue "concrete cooperation" to further their "strategic goals". Alluding to "double
standards" in the cooperation against terrorism and disagreement among countries over
the definition of a terrorist, Mr Safonov said India had faced terrorism even before the
September 11, 2001 attacks in New York. "The enemy was not born on 9/11," he
observed, "[Russia] has noted with dissatisfaction that international cooperation is not
adequate to the scope of threat."
"The Taliban and the Al Qaeda are very active, inflitration is taking place and hostilities
are taking place too. [Elsewhere,] terrorism is spreading its roots, so the problem is
long-term. It is not enough to extinguish the flames, the need is for destroying the
breeding ground," he said, drawing a parallel with how malaria can be controlled not by
by doctors alone but by drying up the swamps that breed mosquitoes.
The Russian president's emissary was equally critical of Washington's role in
Afghanistan and of the US-backed government in Kabul in tackling the narcotics problem.
"Apart from his will which Karzai voices, we do not see noticeable results. The size of
seized drugs is larger and governors and officials may have been sacked or substituted
but [the response] does not correspond to the threat," Mr Safonov said.
Safonov said Afghanistan will see a "record-breaking" production of heroin worth an
estimated 6,200 tonnes, most of which will reach Europe via Russia or funnelled
eastwards through India. "No effort is also being made to stem the inflow of precursors
(used in the manufacture of drugs) into Afghanistan," he added.
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