“Blasts could engender new US-Russia anti-terror dialogue”
Published: 29 March, 2010, 18:43
Edited: 05 April, 2010, 16:08
Russian Federation, Moscow: Russian riot police run near the Lubyanka metro station in Moscow on March 29, 2010. (AFP Photo / STR)
(18.9Mb) embed videoTAGS: Crime, Russia, Politics, Terrorism, USA
After the terrorist attacks in Moscow, there is hope for a new, more comprehensive anti-terror dialogue between Moscow and Washington, believes German political and business consultant Christoph Hörstel.
The specialist joined RT to speak on the possible changes in Russia’s and global politics the Monday attacks in Moscow could bring.
Viktoria Panova, political analyst from Moscow State University of International Relations, wouldn’t agree that the metro blasts might draw Russia and her western partners closer together.
Terrorism has always been a major threat in Russia, that’s why the country supports NATO-led efforts in Afghanistan.
“What’s more problematic is the threat of drug-trafficking. This is what happens. This is where NATO is not ready to cooperate at the moment. They say that it’s not in their mandate”, says Panova.
More attention should be given to the drug-trafficking problem since it’s interlinked with terrorism threats. Then it will make the cooperation between NATO and Russia more efficient.
“The very nature of modern terrorism, the fact that it is an international phenomenon, needs a global international response”, Igor Zevelev, from the MacArthur Foundation, told RT.
According to him, the global cooperation to fight terrorism must take place on two levels: the political, and on the level of security agencies.
Zevelev adds that the April summit in Prague, devoted to the signing of the new START treaty, will give president Medvedev and president Obama the chance to discuss a wide range of issues, including common efforts in fighting international terrorism.
“I don’t think that in terrorism Russia and the United states have a great deal of things to cooperate on,” James Carafano, a retired US Lieutenant Colonel and now a Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told RT.
The expert admits that terrorism today is a global threat facing the whole world.
“Certainly we should all have a common cause… It is inexcusable to murder innocent people for any political cause,” Carofano said.
However, the expert points out that though groups like Al Quaeda and Chechen militants have a common cause, they are still two separate threats. Thus, he dismisses the possibility of close cooperation between Russia and the US in fighting terrorism.
“There are some common concerns, but I don’t think that the notion that somehow there is going be some huge US-Russia cooperation in combating global terrorism is true because I don’t think Russia is interested in doing that with the United States,” Carofano said.
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The attack is an appaling inhumane act. But one must admit that it comes quite convenient for an increasing US-Russia cooporation, exspecially concerning a so-called "joint anti-terror effort".
If the American government wants a new Anti-Terror dialog the first thing they should do is take a long look at the spike in Opium production since they occupied Afghanistan and how it effects the Russian people - specifically given the fact that the 'Northern Alliance' were the people who defied the Taliban ban on production prior to the invasion.












What a terrible shame.How can blowing up innocent people on their way to work gain anything.It seems that no people on earth are safe from this muslim fundamentalism which puts no value on Human life.The US and Russia should join forces and once and for all deal with these people.Unfortunately , they only respond to violence, so we should stop critizing the russians for defending themselves and work together so that these groups and their masters ( Iran) can never get WMD. After all, we joined forces in WWII against hitler, and that didn't work out so well for the Nazis, did it..... God bless Mother Russia and the American peeple.