First stage of CIS counterterrorism exercise in progress in six countries

Operative and special units of the National Security Service of Armenia, the State Security Committee of Belarus, the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan, the National Security Committee of Kyrgyzstan, the Federal Security Service of Russia, and the National Security Committee of Tajikistan are taking part in the CIS counterterrorism exercise.

The exercise is titled as Dushanbe-Antiterror 2017. It is supposed to involve two stages and last for a total of six days. During the first stage (23-26 May) the units will practice interaction between the security agencies of the CIS states as they carry out search and retrieval missions targeting objects of mutual interest. Recruiting efforts of emissaries of international terrorist organizations in social networks will be detected and suppressed. The procedures for mutual informing and notification in conditions of a real terrorism threat will be tested.

During the second stage (31 May - 1 June) a counterterrorism exercise will be staged in Tajikistan to free hostages and neutralize imaginary terrorists at a critical installation (the national television broadcasting center). Units of the Russian and Tajik armies will also stage an operation to block and destroy militants, who have managed to cross the state border of Tajikistan.

According to the source, joint counterterrorism exercises of the CIS states represent an important component of practical interaction in the Commonwealth of Independent States. The exercises are designed to improve the readiness of security agencies, special services, and other power-wielding agencies of the CIS states to respond to terrorist challenges and threats.

Since 2001 the CIS Anti-Terrorism Center has organized 13 exercises of the kind. The focus of such exercises is determined taking into account the state, dynamics, and trends in the propagation of terrorist threats in the CIS states and other regions of the world, Kazinform has learned from BelTA .