Russia offers help to Central Asian countries in countering radical ideologies

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Secretary of the Russian Security Council Sergey Shoygu on Wednesday offered the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) assistance in educating clergymen as a measure to counter radical religious ideologies.

Speaking at a meeting of CIS security council secretaries in Moscow, he said that while "special attention is being paid to countering radical ideology, including religious ideology," the shared "problems of extremism remain common to all CIS countries."

Shoygu emphasized that addressing these challenges requires not only operational information exchange but also preventive measures from Russia, and CIS countries mostly Central Asian.

"For our part, we are ready, for example, to provide training for clerics and preachers, primarily Islamic ones, in Russian theological educational institutions. We have all the possibilities for this," he said.

Shoygu also addressed growing Western influence, noting that in their attempts to strengthen their position in the post-Soviet space, "Western countries do not shy away from practically anything."

He claimed that "with their direct assistance, the presidential and parliamentary elections in Moldova were rigged," and cited Georgian authorities who reported Western interference "up to the attempted coup."

He linked these methods to Western economic conditions, saying that "at the moment, the total national debt of the Group of Seven countries is approximately $61.4 trillion."

"In order to continue to raise the debt level, that is, to shift the consequences to the rest of the world, it is necessary to preserve the monopolistic dominance of the West -- in fact, the parasitic models of globalization," he argued.

Turning to positive developments, Shoygu said "the situation around Afghanistan has improved markedly."

"If we talk about what happened during this time, I won't hide it, there are, in our opinion, quite positive things. I'll start with a simple one, this is a clear improvement in the situation around Afghanistan, a clear reduction in the flow of drugs from this country to the CIS countries," he said.

Shoygu emphasized that "the decisions taken by the CSTO on strengthening the Tajik-Afghan border are quite important, including in terms of curbing drug trafficking," and called for integrating Afghanistan into regional economic systems.

Regarding the South Caucasus, Shoygu said the situation shows improvement and stressed the importance of resuming the work of the "3+3" regional consultative group comprising Russia, Iran, Türkiye, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, to advance the peace process.