PYATIGORSK, Russia. Feb 27 (Interfax) - The chairman of Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee, Alexander Bortnikov, has praised the performance of commissions in the country's North Caucasus that are helping rehabilitate former militants, and called for "new forms and methods" of such rehabilitation.
Bortnikov, who was speaking at a Committee conference in Pyatigorsk on Tuesday, insisted that regional anti-terrorism and anti-extremism programs be revised on the basis of comprehensive studies of local developments and be provided with more efficient funding.
It must be one of the priority objectives for North Caucasus security and law enforcement agencies to prevent weapons trafficking, he insisted.
"Systemic activities on the part of regional and municipal authorities to eliminate reasons and conditions for the dissemination of the ideology of terrorism and for building a support basis for the bandit underground in the North Caucasus must become the decisive factor in terrorism prevention measures," he said.