ROME. Feb 4 (Interfax-AVN) - Moscow could revise its anti- terrorist cooperation with the West if Western officials continue to contact representatives of Chechen separatists, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has said.
"If it is still beneficial to someone to provide a cordial reception to members of Chechen terrorist gangs, as it happened at the PACE session several days ago, we must emphasize that the talk about our consolidation and solidarity could remain just empty words," Ivanov said speaking at an international conference in Rome on Monday.
The world is seeing "a surge in terrorism based on ethnic and religious hatred," he said.
"Not only rebel groups directly involved in combat actions are posing threats now, but also numerous preachers of radical and often militant Islam," who "received training at Islamic educational institutions in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Egypt," the Russian minister noted.
"A comparative analysis of the developments in the Balkans, the North Caucasus, and Central Asia shows that it is precisely Islamic preachers who are tasked with being the first to put into practice long-term objectives of disseminating ideas of separatism and religious extremism in different parts of the world," Ivanov said.
"In doing this, terrorists are trying to drive a wedge between the Christian and Muslim worlds and to fuel a conflict of civilizations, which must not be allowed," the Russian defense minister said.