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Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon,

The topic of our meeting today is Russian national security in the context of the fight against international terrorism. This topic has abiding relevance for our country and it has two aspects: the internal and the international.

The internal aspect is the events that still happen in the North Caucasus, especially in the Chechen Republic. A salient international aspect is the developments in Afghanistan and the situation in its neighbouring states, on the southern borders of the Russian Federation, in the Central Asian CIS countries, all of which is relevant in regards to our foreign policy priorities.

I have to say that our decision to transfer the command of the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya from the Defence Ministry to the Federal Security Service has proved to be right. This is highlighted by the latest results of the work of the special services. At the same time I would like to stress that any counterterrorist operations should be carried out in a way to ensure strict compliance with the Russian laws. Everything should proceed strictly within the current laws. This is the first thing.

Second. The Federal Security Service and other agencies currently actively involved in the work must create conditions in which the brunt of the effort fighting terrorism in Chechnya would gradually shift toward the Interior Ministry with a goal of creating effective units at the Interior Ministry of the Chechen Republic itself.

And the other aspect of our work, as I said, is international. It is the situation in and around Afghanistan. You know what efforts Russia has exerted over the past years to support the united front and the Northern Alliance. Today the situation in that country is improving, at least we are achieving the goals set together with our partners in the international coalition.

But there again not all the objectives have been achieved. I would like to stress that the situation in that country does not yet permit us to control everything that happens on our southern borders, it has not yet stopped the movement of huge masses of migrants, weapons, contraband, drugs and terrorists.

All these circumstances force us to take another hard look at the problem. We must discuss the priorities of our policy in this area, look at what we can do inside the country and what we can do together with our partners in the international coalition and with the partners whose potential, in my opinion, we have not fully used. I mean above all, the CIS Anti-Terrorist Center which must be given a new lease of life. I am referring to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation whose summit we are preparing to hold in June of this year. These are the topics that I suggest we discuss today.