LOC22:51
19:51 GMT
MOSCOW, June 9 (KUNA) -- The situation in the North Caucasus remains
complicated, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday.
Medvedev told a Russian Security Council meeting today held in the republic
of Daghestan that up to 75 law enforcement officers, 48 civilians and 112
militants have been killed in the region since the beginning of 2009.
He said the recent terrorist attack that killed Daghestani Interior
Minister Lt. Gen. Adilgerei Magomedtagirov, poses a challenge to the Russian
state.
Chairing the Security Council meeting, Medvedev said althought there have
been some real results in the fight against militants, but work on destroying
terrorism in the North Caucasus must be continued, adding that security in the
North Caucasus, and the life and health of people depend on that.
The Council agreed that the situation remains complicated in particular in
Ingushetia, Dagestan, Chechnya and Kabardino-Balkaria of the Caucasus region.
The Russian President remarked that it is necessary to develop a complex
set of measures to counter threats in the Caucasus and gave a task to the
National Anti-terrorism Committee to prepare a set of steps to cope with
terrorism and banditism in that region.
He stressed that it is vital to step up the struggle against the drug trade
and drug trafficking, as their profits are used to support terrorism.
Medvedev further stressed that problems in the North Caucasus have a
systematic character which he said stemmed from such factors as poverty, high
unemployment rates, and the huge scale of corruption in local governments.
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